Advocates for net neutrality regulation under Title II are failing to recognize the impact of that regulation and aren’t “living in the real world,” says Comcast. The company recently stated proponents are simply wrong when they claim regulation hasn’t impacted investment. Comcast’s version of events says the mere threat of net neutrality began hurting investment in 2011.
While this sort of argument has been made in public, ISPs, including Comcast, have told investors net neutrality regulation doesn’t actually have much of an effect.
Comcast made its latest comments in a filing with the FCC. One of its executives, David Cohen, requested the agency stop treating ISPs as common carriers under Title 2. Currently, FCC chairman Ajit Pai is on the side of Comcast and has also suggested broadband investment is affected by net neutrality.
[A] study by Dr. George S. Ford found that even the threat of Title II reclassification between 2011 and 2015 “reduced telecommunications investment by 20 percent (or more), or about $32 to $40 billion annually.” That reduction amounts to “about $150-$200 billion in total over the five-year period,” or the equivalent of “an entire year’s worth of telecommunications investment.” As Chairman Pai has noted, such a decline is “extremely unusual” and represents “the first time that such investment has declined outside of a recession in the Internet era.” – Comcast
Though the company is increasing its capital expenditures, Comcast’s spending will be $2.5 billion lower over a 3-year period than it would have been otherwise, says Cohen.
Groups that claim that broadband investment hasn’t been affected by Title II aren’t living in the real world. – Cohen
The FCC is now taking reply comments on the net neutrality topic until August 16.
