Last week was a shocking week for telcos' future profitability.

After months of encouraging signs that mobile operators were finally starting to come to their senses and move off unlimited data plans, the tide is quickly rising back in favor of all-you-can-eat tariffs.

In Hong Kong CSL, 3 and SmarTone all announced that they will keep their unlimited plans in place, and in the Philippines Smart Communications said it will keep offering unlimited data plans.

These announcements were made despite what seemed to be a strong backlash against unlimited. Both Nicole McCormick and David Kennedy from Ovum commented in TelecomAsia.net recently that there is "solid evidence" that mobile operators were starting to abandon unlimited, flat-rate data plans.

McCormick said: "Ovum has long viewed that unlimited data tariffs are unsustainable because of the traffic growth and management issues they generate." Kennedy said in a Telecom Asia column last issue: "This realization is now filtering through to LTE pricing strategies in leading markets in Asia Pacific."

Well, maybe not!

While cellcos have come up with a number of alternatives to unlimited plans, it seems they're not sitting well with consumers in Asia. The move away from unlimited data in the US has been much smoother. Verizon Wireless reported LTE net additions have not been adversely affected after it cut unlimited plans, after AT&T was first to phase out unlimited mobile data. (Both companies had little choice as their networks were becoming increasingly overloaded.)

But in the part of the world it's back to being competitor focused instead of being customer focused and business focused.