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Mobile web use has exploded, and carriers are moving beyond caps to ease network management without enraging consumers.

At the close of 2009 — a year that saw AT&T add 2,000 towers to its mobile network to help it handle demand for 3G data on the popular iPhone and Verizon embrace the concept of fiber backhaul for its own and others' mobile networks — operators are realizing that there might be too much of a good thing in the consumer demand for data. But what to do about that is another question. In Europe, carriers are beginning to test and implement new pricing plans that are designed to satisfy customers, boost carrier revenue and help carriers manage the influx of traffic on their mobile networks. Providers such as Vollubill, Bridgewater Systems, HP, IBM and Camiant are designing the back-end infrastructure and showing carriers how to make some type of variable pricing a reality. Here are several types of plans on the horizon.