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Comcast Lowered Cable Investment Despite Net Neutrality Repeal (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast's cable division spent 3 percent less on capital expenditures last year, despite promises that the repeal of net neutrality rules would boost broadband network investment. Comcast's cable division spent $7.95 billion on capital expenditures during calendar year 2017, but that fell to $7.72 billion in the 12 months ending on December 31, 2018. Comcast's overall capital expenditures went up 2.3 percent, from $9.6 billion in 2017 to $9.8 billion in 2018. But that company-wide capital expenditure number includes the Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, which spent $1.7 billion in 2018, a 15.2 percent increase, "primarily reflecting investment at Theme Parks," Comcast said.
The cable capital expenditure statistic thus provides a more accurate picture of whether Comcast increased or decreased investment in its broadband network. Cable capital expenditures as a percentage of Comcast's cable revenue dropped from 15 percent in 2017 to 14 percent in 2018. Comcast's network spending should have risen in 2018 if predictions from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Comcast had been correct. Pai's net neutrality repeal took effect in June 2018. But the vote to repeal net neutrality rules was in December 2017, and Pai claimed in February 2018 that the repeal was already causing increased broadband investment. While Comcast's cable capital expenditures did rise year over year in the fourth quarter, from $2.15 billion to $2.32 billion, it wasn't enough to offset the full-year decline. Ars Technology also notes: "The corporate tax cut implemented as 2018 began also didn't stop job cuts at Comcast and AT&T, despite promises that the tax cut would create new jobs."
The cable capital expenditure statistic thus provides a more accurate picture of whether Comcast increased or decreased investment in its broadband network. Cable capital expenditures as a percentage of Comcast's cable revenue dropped from 15 percent in 2017 to 14 percent in 2018. Comcast's network spending should have risen in 2018 if predictions from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Comcast had been correct. Pai's net neutrality repeal took effect in June 2018. But the vote to repeal net neutrality rules was in December 2017, and Pai claimed in February 2018 that the repeal was already causing increased broadband investment. While Comcast's cable capital expenditures did rise year over year in the fourth quarter, from $2.15 billion to $2.32 billion, it wasn't enough to offset the full-year decline. Ars Technology also notes: "The corporate tax cut implemented as 2018 began also didn't stop job cuts at Comcast and AT&T, despite promises that the tax cut would create new jobs."
Far more difficult, accurate, convenient, and nuanced than hyperbole
How is expected behavior news?
Net neutrality doesn't relate to cable investment. I get that people hate the lack of net neutrality and the cable co.s are everybody's whipping boys, but come on... You really have to do some mental gymnastics to correlate the the two subjects.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
"The corporate tax cut implemented as 2018 began also didn't stop job cuts at Comcast and AT&T, despite promises that the tax cut would create new jobs."
Are there still idiots around that believe corporations hire people because they have more cash on hand?
Turns out, with or without Net Neutrality, they wouldn't invest more money either way.
An ISP that stops investing, is an ISP that stagnate and risk losing their place in the market when another ISP shows up and has better stuff to offer. The fact that the FCC believed the drivel from the ISPs (what a surprise from an ISP shill), when they said they would no longer invest if net neutrality stayed, just goes to show how corrupt this government is.
when big companies say good things will happen when laws and regulations get changed for their benefit, they're lying.
Without net neutrality, the cable companies become toll collectors. Whoever wants to move the content faster (than everybody else's) will have to pay extra. The best way to incentivize the content providers to pay more is to limit the availability of the bandwidth. The analogy is the toll lane: if there are 10 non toll lanes in each direction and everybody can drive at 75 mph in the morning rush hour, who wants to pay extra to use the toll lane? However if there are only 3 lanes and traffic is bumper to bumper, then it's easier to charge $8.75 for those impatient. With net neutrality, the incentive to the bit pipe owners is to improve overall capacity. Without net neutrality, the incentive is to create some congestion to drive up the toll price.
Oh please, for the love of god mod up.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
The current US regimes base only cares that they reduce the brown people coming into the country. As a result there is no need to keep up the lie that companies are struggling because of an equal Internet. The only people that care don't matter to the decision makers. The regimes lackeys will just brush off any negative results of their policies by blaming the Black guy that had the audacity to lead the country, for good and bad, like other presidents before him.
You all are soooooo stupid and brainwashed by these Corporations and Politicians !!!!
There is NO REASON WHATSOEVER that YOU need THEM for ANYTHING.
Get THE FUCK on EBAY, BUY some goddamned FIBER OPTICS, COPPER and WIFI,
and start RIGGING your OWN fucking DIRECT P2P DISTRIBUTED networks
between your own damn HOUSES.
Get off your LAZY fucking ASS, go knock on your neighbors door,
go buy some fucking SHOVELS, and connect yourselves point to point.
Do that with 2 to three neighbors in proximity and let the routing protocols
sort it out.
RUN your own fucking SERVICES, your own youtubes, servers, games,
files, news media.
Encrypt and distribute everything, then ENTIRE fucking network
and ALL the services.
It's PRIVATE, INEXPENSIVE, and they can NEVER shut you down.
Your house, to theirs, to someone elses, on down the line
across the ENTIRE PLANET.
FUCK the Corporations.
FUCK the Government.
Do it your goddamned SELVES.
And while you're at it...
ADOPT some fucking Cryptocurrency already.
And...
search youtube: Larken Rose
STOP playing fool the the Corp, Govt, News game.
OWN YOURSELF.
DO IT YOURSELVES.
It's so EASY, just get up and do it.
For once.
Please.
Thank God I don't have to deal with them anymore. Their cable circuit was at most a backup. It was still broken most of the time.
Corporatism != Free Market
Companies invest when they are optimistic about the future health and potential revenue growth of their organization. Take Amazon, Netflix for example. The majority of Comcast's corporate portfolio are in shrinking industries.
Subtitled "I've just shat myself in surprise!"
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
why would you invest in a dead product?
From the report
"For the twelve months ended December 31, 2018, capital expenditures increased 2.3% to $9.8 billion compared to 2017. Cable Communications' capital expenditures decreased 3.0% to $7.7 billion, reflecting decreased spending on customer premise equipment and support capital, partially offset by higher investment in scalable infrastructure and line extensions. For the year, Cable capital expenditures represented 14.0% of Cable revenue compared to 15.0% in 2017. NBCUniversal's capital expenditures increased 15.2% to $1.7 billion in 2018, primarily reflecting investment at Theme Parks."
Ok so cable capex dropped 3% to 7.7 billion. There could be many reasons for the drop, like this article from March 2018 describes:
https://www.fiercevideo.com/ca...
"“For 2018, spending on customer premise equipment is expected to continue to decline. With X1 now deployed to nearly 60% of our residential video base, the pace of our rollout has started to slow,” noted Comcast CFO Michael Cavanaugh during Comcast’s fourth-quarter earnings call in January. "
Heil Hitler! Exterminate IndoTRUMPs! Grind BeauHDs into fine powder and feed to the swine which will be in turn the morning bacon cooked by Miss Mash which she will serve to filthy Muslims.
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The real question is how much did Google and Netflix have to invest additionally for their content distribution infrastructure since Comcast didn't have to pay for it themselves under "net neutrality"?
i spray diarrhea on hitler and all you hold dear
See subject.
Why should they be expected to foot the bill for funding a network that increasingly enables streaming services to compete with them and undermine their profitability?
What did that have to do with the topic of the article? Nothing. Then why include it? Why, to grind a political ax of course!
You can't try and micromanage the free market, regulate and grant monopolies and then get upset when the market doesn't work right.
Weird, an industry giant granted special favors and treatment ain't respond to the market correctly? Surely this is how capitalism work
Did you expect anything else?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
No, they don't invest because they don't have to invest. They are protected by a natural monopoly, so they don't have to invest.
My God- is your life really that dependent on what Comcast does? Are you really so low on the societal totem pole that this is important to you?
If so you're all unsuccessful idiots who can barely pay for your own food, much less an internet connection. That's because you're all useless to society.
Shame.
Real shame.
Seriously, very few companies make products because they have a passion for it. Even if a company was started that way, what business schools teach, loses any of that value derived from making a product out of passion.
Somehow or another, this braindead idea seems to have entered into the schools that teach business: A business is about making money, the actual method of making that money is not terribly important, just the act of making money is important. So a car company is not a car company, it is a company that makes money by building cars.
So here we have a company. Its method of making money revolves around ... who cares what it revolves around? It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is refining the process to gouge the maximum amount of money out of the service they provide.
So from this vantage point, what do you think Comcast is going to do if they can devise a way to gouge more money out of people? They will do it.
How do you think the Comcast executives sees the infrastructure that provides their method of making money? It is a cost center. Money should come in, never out, so maintenance will always be perpetually underfunded. Money in, no money out.
This is a hyper-refined veiwpoint that has its uses, but to insist that every executive think like this? Absolute madness. Can you imagine how fucked up the world would be if every business acted like this? Oh wait, we don't need to imagine. I don't like this world.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen