In the first year of new FCC rules, broadband spending declines

See Tom Wheeler’s Internet Debacle, editorial from the WSJ. Excerpt:

"Unhappy anniversary! Chairman Tom Wheeler is congratulating himself, a year after his Federal Communications Commission followed President Obama’s orders to apply ancient telephone regulations to the Internet. “Strong rules of the road have provided certainty for innovators & investors so #broadband network deployment continues,” he tweeted.

Ah, no. A new study shows that broadband deployment is heading south after years of rapid growth. And congressional investigators have released new evidence of political interference and possible legal violations in the FCC’s rule-making.

The FCC enacted this historic blunder on a partisan 3-2 vote. Dissenting Republicans Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai warned that bureaucratic costs plus uncertainty about future enforcement would discourage Internet service providers from costly build-outs. Mr. Wheeler promised to exercise “forbearance” from the most onerous of the traditional phone rules.

Now broadband providers are the ones forbearing—from investment. Capital expenditures by Internet service providers rose by 8.7% in 2013, according to the U.S. Telecom Association. Then investment slowed to 4% growth in 2014 as the FCC considered new rules. Economist Hal Singer now reports that in 2015 industry capital expenditures declined by 0.4%.

Commissioner Pai warned last year that the FCC would enjoy “a roving mandate to review business models and upend pricing plans that benefit consumers.” And, sure enough, he says the FCC “is now hauling companies into our headquarters to justify their service plans. Take T-Mobile ’s Binge On program, which lets customers choose to stream videos without it counting against their data usage.”"