As more people access the Internet from mobile devices, it's essential that the wireless Web is neutral, and that wireless carriers do not block applications from accessing data, whether it’s in the form of 3G or WiFi networks.

The last year has been full of disappointments on this front, with the carriers blocking all sorts of innovative apps from accessing 3G networks. But now there are some major chinks in the data firewall, and two recent announcements point to a new approach to 3G access.

First, AT&T announced it would allow the Slingplayer iPhone app — which lets users view their cable programming on their phone — to run on 3G, instead of limiting it to WiFi.

And Verizon will now be including Skype software on its phones, which will work over 3G connections.

The Skype news is particularly important. Last year, AT&T and Apple got heat for restricting VoIP applications like Skype and Vonage from working over 3G connections. The move severely handicapped smartphones, which — while advertised as providing the “Internet in your pocket” — were blocked by the carriers from operating like a desktop computer. Instead, we had “the wireless industry-approved version of the Internet in your pocket.” Not as catchy, and certainly not as consumer friendly.

Verizon’s move changes the story. It shows that the company understands that the future of wireless is in data, not voice (paging AT&T…). While that has led to some expensive new pricing schemes for data, the move to open up 3G is promising, and we hope other carriers will follow Verizon’s lead.

That said, the Verizon announcement is not exactly revolutionary. Indeed, it should have come long ago.

Says Free Press policy counsel Chris Riley:

You know the wireless industry is a mess when it becomes major news for an incumbent to allow an eminently non-harmful, low bandwidth Internet application to be used. I hope the FCC enacts technology-neutral open Internet rules so that allowing applications like Skype becomes ordinary rather than extraordinary.

Let's urge the FCC and Congress to open up access to mobile wireless data and take down the data firewall once and for all.