Hmmm, that strikes me as something to hope for in the next decade, but I can't see it happening in the next year, if for no other reason than the network buildouts required (e.g. after so many years of cutting capex, how long will it take AT&T to merely catch up with current demand?)
The thing is it's already here to some extent, and there are some widespread deployments of embedded OTA data products, kindle, On-Star, various netbooks with modems included, commercial washing machines(for laundromats), alarm systems; there's a lot of product already out there.
Yes, it's a long term trend, but it's growing stronger and there's a lot of equipment that's only going to be reporting 20-30kb of data per month. And the cost of the parts has fallen along the same curve as most other electronics. A $40 dollar broadband module can pay for itself with one service call or critical alarm, depending on the context.
