John Lewis Group has done this for years, but this was to keep employees loyal. You pay for your own time off. For some, the mobile phone users will be the smokers of this century - confined to phone only sections of restaurants. What it comes down to is what companies are providing, how good the service is, how sustainable the concept is and how different or easier it is to use than the high street. There may well be a liquidity crunch coming for many start-ups and major players, many will be swallowed by others, but with free access, the web is going to going into warp drive in the UK economy.
All bets are off.
By the by, if it all goes sour don't blame me. The Europeans will buy up everything and will end up working for someone in Paris. It's the way you know.