Washington Post: Speaking out of both sides of their mouths

Big Telecom can't get their story straight on the Internet slow lane Article by Brian Fung for the Washington Post In the past week, I've written a bit about how broadband industry execs are telling Washington one thing about strict net neutrality while suggesting something else to Wall Street. The companies are telling investors that they'll keep making their networks better, just like always — even if federal regulators adopt aggressive Internet rules. But that's not what regulators are hearing from the companies, who are telling them that those same rules would depress investment in the network and hurt consumers.

Big Telecom can't get their story straight on the Internet slow lane

Article by Brian Fung for the Washington Post

In the past week, I've written a bit about how broadband industry execs are telling Washington one thing about strict net neutrality while suggesting something else to Wall Street. The companies are telling investors that they'll keep making their networks better, just like always — even if federal regulators adopt aggressive Internet rules. But that's not what regulators are hearing from the companies, who are telling them that those same rules would depress investment in the network and hurt consumers.

Which message should we believe? It's an interesting discrepancy, one that raises questions about what the carriers truly believe. Some Switch readers are skeptical that we should interpret anything significant from the executives' remarks. But there are some good arguments for giving the investor messaging the benefit of the doubt.

A few readers have argued that top company execs such as Verizon's chief financial officer amount to little more than "corporate bean counters" with little knowledge of what actually goes into running a network or managing regulatory affairs.

- Read more at The Washington Post



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