At this Wednesday’s big event, a chief executive will introduce a new approach to the world. In a much-publicized speech, he’ll describe why we need to take this painful, necessary step into the future. With threats coming from all sides, he’ll detail the cost to the American public.

I’m talking, of course, about Steve Jobs, the Jan. 27 Apple media event and the Apple tablet.

Maybe I’m being slightly hyperbolic, but only a little. For months now, the tech press has been salivating over the thought of an Apple tablet — likely to be a 10-inch iPhone-like device that will cause a revolution in how we consume media. Now the predictions and prognostications have reached a fever pitch.

It’s not just the hardware we’re hearing about; we also may be seeing an end to the tyranny of AT&T as we know it.

An anonymous source told HotHardware that, in addition to presenting the tablet (the iPad?), Apple will announce an end to AT&T’s exclusive carriage of the iPhone. The supposed reasoning is somewhat surprising: The iPhone is hurting AT&T’s image, thanks to AT&T’s inability to manage the stream of data flowing to and from the iPhone.

HotHardware think AT&T has is facing a marketing problem: “AT&T has gained a huge amount of subscribers from being the only operator with the iPhone, and if it loses that advantage, it’ll need some other cutting-edge, high-brow phones to keep people’s attention.”

To be clear: It’s not a marketing problem; AT&T has a a network problem. Maybe the marketing issues would go away if AT&T actually upgraded its own network…

Nevertheless, we hope this rumor is true. It’s good for consumers if phones are available on multiple platforms, increasing access to innovative technologies. And more moves like this would force phone companies to have to compete on the quality of their services and networks, rather than over phone exclusivity agreements. It’s the road to a competitive wireless market.

The tablet will most likely have a 3G data connection, and this rumor has it that it will be sold from more than one wireless carrier as well.

We can dream. For now, back to the tablet rumors.