On the webpages of Gigaom we’re constantly talking about mobile data, the mobile internet and mobile broadband, but the mobile carriers have always lived in a voice-centric world. The importance of smartphones and LTE can’t be ignored, but the fact remains voice always has been the principal source of the mobile carriers’ paychecks.

We’re approaching a crossover point in the U.S., however, at which data becomes a bigger revenue driver than voice. According to a new report from Chetan Sharma Consulting, that crossover point will likely be the current quarter. For the third quarter, data accounted for 48 percent of all U.S. mobile industry service revenues, and that percentage is growing quickly. Carriers took in $22.8 billion from data in Q3, up 5 percent from the previous quarter and 15 percent year over year.

Verizon(s vz)(s vod), AT&T(s t) and Sprint(s s) have all crossed over the 50 percent…