Comcast’s Capital Spending After Reclassification: A Check on Claims

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Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood told Congress that “Comcast’s total capital spending for the two years following the 2015 [net neutrality] vote increased by 26 percent." In contrast to claims, Comcast’s investment data provide, if anything, evidence that reclassification has been detrimental to capital spending. 

To be policy relevant, a change in a statistic of interest must be put into perspective. Standing alone, a change in capital expenditures (or any other outcome) following a policy intervention offers no insight into the effect of the policy. Capital expenditures change over time—it’s what they do. So, a change must be compared to what the change would have been absent the policy intervention, even if based (naïvely) on changes prior to the intervention. That is, a counterfactual analysis is required to assess the effects of the intervention.The claim that Comcast’s capital spending rose after the 2015 Open Internet Order is meaningless in and of itself. A review of Comcast’s capital expenditure data show clearly that the company’s growth in capital expenditures fell after the 2015 reclassification decision and were below those occurring before the FCC threatened reclassification.


Comcast’s Capital Spending After Reclassification: A Check on Claims