Speaking at the FTTH Conference and Expo in Houston Tuesday, Verizon Communications CTO Richard Lynch said the broadband industry is headed toward a pricing paradigm shift that will see it embrace the usage-based pricing common to the wireless broadband industry.

Internet service providers “cannot continue to grow the Internet without passing the cost on to someone,” Lynch said in remarks reported by Telephony Online. “At the end of the day the concept of a flat-rate infinitely expandable service is unachievable. We are going to reach a point where we will sell packages of bytes. Now I’m not announcing a new pricing plan. But we have already gone this way in wireless because that is where the resource is most constrained.”

So while Lynch may not have announced a new pricing plan, he’s clearly got one in mind. And these, the first public comments from Verizon (VZ) on a transition to metered bandwidth, likely mean the all-you-can-eat days are soon to end and the “will this streaming video put me over my monthly usage cap” days about to begin.

Which, as consumer advocates will tell you, is bad news because charging Internet customers based on how much Web data they consume is likely to stifle innovation by undermining demand for high-bandwidth services such as online video and whatnot.

The first: Palm, as was rumored, is expanding its early-access program for Mojo, the WebOS SDK. The second: The company is introducing a new set of integrated cloud services, called Mojo Messaging Service, for developers. From the official announcement:

“The Mojo Messaging Service is an elegant, standards-based way to exchange information over the Internet. When new information is available, it is ‘published’ to the cloud and all interested parties who are subscribers are notified that new information is available. This will allow developers to push live content to their applications or services. The Mojo Messaging Service initially will have a limited feature set and service level that will evolve over time.”

And the third, as was also rumored: Developer MotionApps has written an emulator called Classic for the Pre that will allow users to run more than 30,000 PalmOS apps on the device. Also from the official announcement:

“Palm also announced that MotionApps (www.motionapps.com) is creating an emulator application that will allow most Palm OS applications to run on webOS devices. The application, called ‘Classic,’ will be available for purchase when the Palm Pre phone becomes available from Sprint in the first half of 2009, and gives users peace of mind as they transition to Palm’s new webOS.

Since Palm OS applications running in Classic won’t be able to leverage core webOS functionality, Palm is working with partners to ensure that popular Palm OS applications are made available on the webOS platform and are optimized to take advantage of everything it has to offer. In the meantime, the MotionApps Classic application will allow customers who have invested in the Palm OS platform to use Palm OS applications they’ve grown to love and depend upon on their new webOS devices.”

Mildly interesting announcements, I suppose. Still, frustrating for those waiting for news that really should have been provided by now. What of pricing and availability information for the Pre? When will we be given that?

Belkin has confirmed that it’s pulling its booth from the show floor as well. The company has opted instead to hold private meetings with its channel partners. It insists that this isn’t so much a financial decision, as a strategic one–”we’re reallocating show floor funds to hold private product meetings,” a spokesperson told me–but it’s hard not to view it that way, given the continued deterioration of the economy. Interesting to note, though, that sources tell AppleInsider that the company had already paid for its 2009 booth space.

Show organizer IDG must be offering Econalypse refunds….

UPDATE: Belkin won’t be exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show, either. “No booth at CES–and it’s for the same reasons why we’re not exhibiting at MacWorld,” a spokesperson tells me. “We learned that a smaller group of our channel partners will be attending CES, and those who are attending are focusing on driving incremental value in 2009. We believe that private meetings in hotel suites are more conducive for this type of discussion, as they are more intimate. So, we are redistributing our resources and funds to help support sell-thru for our retail partners and drive traffic into their stores. Examples: more holiday promotions and programs.”

As of this morning, no participants–potential or otherwise–have pulled out of Super Bowl XLIII, but the trend is looking grim for seasonal blockbusters. We’ll keep you posted.