Comcast, AT&T Slash Investment Cash Despite Net Neutrality Repeal

Earlier this month, Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he once again repeated his claim that after the repeal of federal net neutrality rules in 2018, big telecom companies would boost their investments in new technology and infrastructure.  Pai made the claims despite multiple studies showing that companies such as Comcast, Charter Communications and other major internet providers had, in fact, slowed or cut their capital investments since the FCC ditched Obama-era net neutrality rules in June 2018. This week, as  companies unveiled their fourth-quarter reports from 2019, even more evidence entered the public record to contradict Pai’s claims. Comcast in 2019 slashed investments by more than 10 percent, according to a TechDirt report.  Pai has also claimed that net neutrality rules, while in place, caused companies to drastically slash their infrastructure and technology investments—but studies have also shown that between 2015 and 2018 when the rules were in place, overall industry investments were higher than without the rules in place.  But Comcast was not the only telecom firm to roll back spending last year, the first full year since 2014 without FCC net neutrality rules. An AT&T earnings report also showed that the telecommunications behemoth has been steadily putting the brakes on its spending programs. The company has also told its investors that it plans to slash investments by another $3 billion in 2020, as well, according to the company’s own press release. For Comcast, even as the company reined in investments, it made an increasing amount of money from its cable business, according to an Ars Technica report. Comcast’s cable revenue of $58.1 billion in 2019 was a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year. At the same time, Comcast dropped spending on new cable lines in previously unserved areas by $100 million, while cutting investment in new bandwidth expansion by about $600 million, according to the Ars Technica report. Photo By Mike Mozart / Wikimedia Commons