Usage monitoring of home energy consumption in real time seemed like a no-fail idea. Who wouldn’t want to save money and help the environment? However, consumer uptake failed to materialize, as we saw last year with announcements that Google was discontinuing PowerMeter and Microsoft’s competing Hohm service will be discontinued on May 31, 2012.

So does the failure of home energy usage monitoring provide a lesson for the telecom industry?

With Verizon Wireless removing its unlimited data plan availability and streaming services like Netflix compounding data utilization and network load, usage monitoring services should matter more than ever to consumers. Increased interest in usage monitoring of data, bandwidth, and ultimately cost, seems on the surface to be a logical point of focus within LTE, wireless, and broadband management. But the failure of PowerMeter and Hohm in the home energy usage monitoring space begs the question “Will consumers actually care?”

No consumer wants to be surprised by a large wireless bill at the end of the month. But how much do they really care about the amount? Sprint is betting that they do. However, the cost of providing unlimited voice and data plans continue to be a much more risk intensive endeavor for the carrier versus its competitors.

Existing customer relationship management (CRM) practices by some carriers to “right fit” customer contracts continue to be successful in retaining customers and extending contracts. But the real national focus areas, in both unlimited and limited or capped environments, continue to be heavily focused on device availability, service, coverage areas, and speed. Customers are choosing carriers with the most appealing device lineup, and the network speed and capacity that allow the fullest and most effective utilization of those devices. If cost based brand defection isn’t close to the top of the list, should carriers be concerned with developing usage monitoring tools and practices for their customers, particularly when pricing in the telecom industry, unlike home energy, primarily has customer driven variables?

Going one step further, dynamic pricing based on cell load, location, time of day, subscriber type and/or subscriber activity, is already being deployed by smaller carriers in emerging markets. For example, India’s Uninor customers get cut-price voice calls, with the level of discount determined by how busy the mobile network is when the call is placed.

Wireless carriers should be wary of the failure of PowerMeter and Hohm, but at the same time realize that their termination may have been premature. Perhaps consumers needed more education, greater awareness, and more time.

The jury may still be out on individualized usage monitoring but in the meantime, providers must be careful not to overlook potential tools to monetize under-utilized network capacity, manage QoS (quality of service), and leverage new ways of creating more loyal customers.