The companies that provide your internet access have long predicted doom because of the current net neutrality regulations.
On Wednesday, an association of tech giants dropped a new report that essentially says those internet providers are full of it. And they even included some pretty charts to back that up.
ISPs argue that they won't continue to build out expensive broadband networks if they can't be assured that it's going to be profitable. Those companies claimed that the net neutrality rules would do just that.
However, the chart below shows how much money internet providers have spent on their networks. Notice it continues to go up.
The charts come to us from Internet Association, a trade group made up of many of the biggest tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Snap, Spotify, Uber, and more.
"ISP investment is up over time, and shows no decline as a result of Title II reclassification in 2015," the Association wrote in its preliminary findings.
There's a lot of jargon in there, but translated it means that the Association found no evidence that the widely-celebrated net neutrality rules of 2015 did anything to damper investment in broadband. Those companies had essentially made empty threats.
The report comes a day before the Federal Communications Commission — which under President Barack Obama put the existing net neutrality rules in place — is scheduled to vote on a proposal to roll back those rules. The shift is a result of the election of President Donald Trump, who then appointed avowed anti-net neutrality commissioner Ajit Pai as chairman.
After that vote, there will be another period of discussion, which is expected to get contentious. The Association's report provides a bit of ammunition for that fight. It claims that none of the downsides of net neutrality, such as a decline in innovation, have come to fruition
And there are even more charts to back that up. Telecom companies (which provide internet access for your smartphone) claimed net neutrality would result in less innovation. The Association noted that patent applications increased more than 50% from 2010 to 2012.
Topics Net Neutrality
