We've heard the drumbeat for more granular pricing of wireless services for some time now. Yesterday, C Spire went a long way towards realizing that promise with the announcement of its Choice and Shared data plan offerings. 

The new Choice plans, which enable a la carte purchases of premium data services like video streaming and tethering at the time of consumption, are powered by OpenWave Mobility's Promotion and Pricing Innovation (PPI) Mobile Data Charging solution. 

Indranil Chatterjee, vice president of product management, marketing and strategy, for Openwave says the new video plans, which are purchased in blocks of time are meant to be more intuitive than plans where data is purchased in Megabytes and Gigabytes that can be confusing to some customers. 

Chatterjee pegs the beginning of the trend towards use-based pricing to Apple. 

"The iTunes model, really revolutionized the way the music was sold with its pay for what you use model," he says. 

With C Spire's video plans, customers have a choice of 2-hour, 4-hour and unlimited viewing over the course of a month. Chatterjee said the plans were a way for C Spire to manage heavy video users who are essentially subsidized by other users who consume very little video. 

OpenWave's existing PPI platform made for quick deployment of the new plans. 

"From concept to deployment, it took us about 60 days," Chatterjee said. 

That kind of flexibility, he said, opens the door to even more innovative pricing and plans in the future. Such plans could include off-peak data at a reduced rate, unique roaming packages, or plans specifically designed for the consumption of HD content. 

Chatterjee says it all comes down to giving consumers more choices in ways that are easy to understand, while simultaneously reducing the risks of bill shock.  

"The end user doesn't give a damn about how the bytes are being metered...What they care about is are you telling me that I've finished my plan?...Are you telling me I need to top up?...Are you giving me my usage parameters?"