It is a it is leading to include all investments in cellular infrastructure as
broadband investments...
More important, looking only at the existing broadband providers tells us
nothing about the potential investments by new competitors that were either
cancelled or delayed.
Personally, I do not think that any shifts in investment are the major story
here. It was the way in which the playing field was tilted in favor of Internet
services versus broadband providers that is very concerning.
Regards
Craig
On Jul 16, 2017, at 8:44 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I post this Business Insider article primarily because I saw this other new
one, from Free State Foundation, which tries to make the opposite case. But
note, FSF is trying to invent silly fudge factors to "prove" its point.
http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/free-state-does-math-broadband-investment/413989
I knew the FSF article was contradicted by more credible figures, because I
had already seen them. May have already posted the BI article which follows.
Bert
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.businessinsider.com/broadband-investment-up-after-new-net-neutrality-rules-2017-5
A new report says that broadband investment actually rose after net
neutrality regulation
Troy Wolverton
May 15, 2017, 1:08 PM
Despite what you hear from critics of the current net neutrality rules, when
it comes to their effect on how much broadband providers are investing in
their networks, the sky doesn't seem to be falling.
That's the word Monday from Free Press, a consumer advocacy group. In a new
report, the group took a look at investments made by the publicly traded
broadband companies before and after the Federal Communications Commission
put in place its strong net neutrality rules in 2015.
In the two-year period following the new rules, overall broadband-related
investment among those companies was up 5% from the two-year period
immediately preceding them, Free Press found. And if you exclude Sprint and
AT&T, both of which decreased their investment after completing the build out
of their high-speed LTE networks, overall investment would have been up 9%,
according to the report.
"If investment is the FCC's preferred metric, then there's only one possible
conclusion: Net Neutrality and Title II are smashing successes," Derek
Turner, Free Press' research director, said in a statement. Title II is the
section of the federal Communications Act that the FCC controversially used
to undergird its net neutrality rules.
Free Press' finding is important because it addresses one of the key
arguments against those rules -- that they would stymie investment. FCC
Chairman Ajit Pai, relying on industry commissioned figures, has argued that
investment has actually declined since the new rules took effect.
Citing those figures, Pai has proposed repealing the rules. The FCC is
scheduled to vote Thursday to begin the process to overturn them. The FCC
vote will begin a comment period in which the public and interested
organizations can argue for and against repealing the rules. Supporters of
the rules have been planning to attack his rationale regarding broadband
investment head-on in their effort to oppose repeal.
In its new report, Free Press found that during 2015 and 2016 combined,
investment was up at 16 of the 24 public broadband companies it examined
compared with the period from 2013 to 2014. At some companies investment was
up markedly over that period. Investment by Comcast, for example, rose nearly
27% from the two years before the new rules to the two years after them to
$14.6 billion. Frontier's investment was up 71% over those time periods,
while Cincinnati Bell's was up 50%.
The biggest drop in investment among public companies was at US Celluar,
where investment fell by 24% from the first time period to the second. But
Free Press noted the company had previously informed investors it would
curtail its investment after completing its own LTE roll-out.
Free Press also examined Census Bureau data to get a sense of whether and how
the rules affected investment by private companies. The Census Bureau data
indicated that total investment by the telecommunication industry rose by
$553 million to $87.2 billion in 2015 compared with 2014.
Not only was investment up overall, but so too were overall industry revenue
and profits, Free Press found.
"The supposition made by Chairman Pai, and by his supporters inside
Washington and cable company lobbying shops, is that irrational fear of a
hypothetical future intervention could kill off investment in an otherwise
booming sector of the economy," Free Press said in its report. "Don't believe
them."
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