Recently some comments made by a Comcast executive vice president, David Cohen, were causing a lot of buzz online. During a talk he said that he expects Comcast to roll out “usage-based billing” for all subscribers within the next five years. This was interpreted as data caps for all by the year 2019. In a follow up statement Cohen “clarifies” that his comments were picked up out of context and misinterpreted in a number of places.
Cohen clarifies that Comcast has “no plans” to announce a new policy which enforces data caps for all. Despite the fact that the company has been running a few pilot programs the executive says that there are no long term plans to shift every subscriber to this model. “We certainly have no interest in adopting any plans that our customers find unreasonable or disruptive to their internet experience,” he says.
The fact remains though that Comcast is running trial programs with set limits, subscribers are charged extra if they go over the limit. This is presented as a favorable option for those who want to have the option to pay for more data when they want to use more or for those who want less data with some additional savings.
But Cohen says these trials aren’t a sign of things to come. He claims that Comcast only implemented these trials “to learn what our customers’ reaction is.” He also claims that Comcast is now looking to add some unlimited data plans to trials as well.
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