Verizon Wireless imagines that its coming LTE mobile broadband network will run all kinds of devices such as tablet computers, home appliances, automobiles, smart phones and televisions that you may not necessarily get from a Verizon store.

And because so many devices in one household could be connected to its network, the nation’s largest wireless service operator thinks the days of flat-rate plans may be over, according to Verizon chief technology officer Dick Lynch in an interview Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show. Instead, the company will probably charge a base rate for its users and allow multiple authenticated devices to be attached to its network. Then it will charge by how much bandwidth is used by a provider – a business model known as usage-based pricing.
“The problem we have today with flat-based usage is that you are trying to encourage customers to be efficient in use and applications but you are getting some people who are bandwidth hogs using gigabytes a month and they are paying something like megabytes a month,” Lynch said. “That isn’t long-term sustainable. Why should customers using an average amount of bandwidth be subsidizing bandwidth hogs?”