Comcast says it publicly outlined its usage-based pricing philosophy back in 2012

As Comcast continues to face criticism over its usage cap tests, the company said none of the policies are new or secret. In fact, a company representative said that Comcast outlined its usage-based pricing philosophy back in May 2012 in a company blog post. The post, written by Cathy Avgiris, at the time executive VP and GM of communications and data services for Comcast Cable, was written as Comcast suspended a 250 GB hard cap on data usage. It outlined the usage-based pricing strategy and trials the company is currently conducting in a handful of markets.

"We are going to trial improved data usage management approaches comparable to plans that others in the market are using that will provide customers with more choice and flexibility than our current policy," Avgiris said. "We'll be piloting at least two approaches in different markets, and we'll provide additional details on these trials as they launch. But we can give everyone an overview today." The purpose of the data-usage limit, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said, has always been to "create a more fair approach, where the heaviest data users pay a little more and the light data users get to pay a little less. It means the heavier data users will pay a little more for us to re-double capacity on our network every 12 to 18 months."