If Facebook, Twitter, and Generation Text have taught us anything, it’s that our future lies in ubiquitous asynchronous communication. People these days are talking less and less over the telephone. Even if we do engage in synchronous communication, we are increasingly doing it over services that make sense, like Skype, or iChat. We are ever increasingly moving our communications towards data, and away from telephony. It makes sense doesn’t it? Services like Skype at a minimum provide the same level of service as your old landline, yet have the added benefit of actually being able to see your distant relatives over webcam, etc.

It’s painfully obvious that this is the direction the entire world is moving in, so why are wireless phone carriers so behind the times? Well, at least one of them is. Sprint and Verizon are slowly accepting and accommodating the actual needs of their customers, while AT&T is going backwards.

Perhaps once the iPad and iPhone are featured on other carriers, they’ll be forced to actually… you know… compete for business. Until then, AT&T customers are simply screwed.