AT&T's chief executive expects the industry to offer data-only cell phone plans within two years, potentially replacing cell phone minutes and text message counts with a single counter logging megabytes and gigabytes.

"In such a scenario, phone calls would be considered just another form of data," the Associated Press notes in a recap of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's remarks Friday morning in a New York conference hosted by investment firm Bernstein Global Wealth Management.

Already, services like Skype are replacing some traditional voice calls, and services like iMessage are replacing some text messaging. The AP notes that "phone companies still make most of their money from calling plans and texting, which use very little data." The trend of carriers moving from unlimited plans to data caps isn't a good one for customers, but whether moving to a data-only model would help or hurt consumers is hard to say until actual pricing and plans are revealed.

Light Reading also reported on Stephenson's speech, saying that Stephenson "called data-only pricing plans inevitable as a response to revenues moving from voice to data. For consumers, these plans would let them rely on voice-over IP and other over-the-top apps for calling and texting." Rather than data-only plans being the primary type of contract, Light Reading said Stephenson characterized it as one option among various types of wireless pricing experimentation.

Spectrum availability will help determine the future of pricing and rationing, Stephenson said, arguing that "there's probably only one thing that will help mitigate the pricing and rationing and it's more spectrum brought to market."