Chairman Pai promised faster broadband expansion—Comcast cut spending instead

Comcast reduced capital spending on its cable division in 2019, devoting less money to network extensions and improvements despite a series of government favors that were supposed to accelerate broadband expansions. "For the twelve months ended December 31, 2019, Cable capital expenditures decreased 10.5 percent to $6.9 billion," down from $7.7 billion in 2018, Comcast, the nation's largest home Internet provider, said in its earnings announcement. "Cable capital expenditures represented 11.9 percent of Cable revenue compared to 13.8 percent in 2018." 2019 was the second straight year that Comcast lowered its overall cable capital expenditures (though Comcast's spending on line extensions and scalable infrastructure rose in 2018). 

This wasn't supposed to happen, according to claims that Internet service providers and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai made in order to push through the repeal of network neutrality rules and other deregulatory measures. Chairman Pai repeatedly argued that net neutrality rules caused broadband providers to reduce capital expenditures. After his net neutrality repeal took effect in June 2018, he claimed that the repeal and other FCC deregulation caused investment to rise.