Money can be exchanged for goods and services, including network upgrades. (credit: AMC)
Net neutrality rules and Title II common carrier regulation were supposed to derail investment in the broadband industry. The Federal Communications Commission's new rules took effect in June despite the protest of Internet service providers and Republicans in Congress, who are still fighting the new regime in courts of law and public opinion. Republicans held a hearing just two days ago to discuss how common carrier regulation will inevitably cause investment to decline.
But in the quarter ending September 30, a three-month period that occurred entirely after the FCC's rules took effect, Comcast's latest earnings report says that its "capital expenditures increased 11.0 percent to $2.2 billion" over the same period the previous year.
Although the rules took effect in June, they were voted on in February. It was clear that change was coming back in November 2014 when President Obama urged the FCC to apply common carrier rules to ISPs. If the rules destroyed the case for network investment, ISPs had this entire year to prepare before they were finalized.
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