AT&T/Verizon lobby misunderstands arrow of time, makes impossible claim

USTelecom, the telecommunication industry lobby group that represents AT&T and Verizon, has consistently claimed that network neutrality rules hurt broadband investment. Yet the same lobby group has released data showing that fiber deployment grew significantly while net neutrality rules were in effect. Even more surprising is that USTelecom also recently claimed that an increase in broadband network investment that happened before the net neutrality repeal was somehow caused by the repeal that hadn't yet taken effect.

USTelecom released a new analysis last week, saying that, "from the end of 2015 to mid-2017, US fiber deployment grew from 21 percent to 29 percent of homes and competitive availability of wired broadband at 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload [speeds] increased from 31 percent to 55 percent." 2015 to 2017 "was the exact period in which the industry keeps telling us it suffered from 'unprecedented' and 'heavy-handed regulation' like net neutrality that stifled industry investment," wrote Techdirt's Karl Bode. "And yet here USTelecom is insisting that the exact period exhibited 'rapid' growth 'driven by competitive upgrades.' Why, it's almost as if the telecom sector's top lobbyists aren't ideologically or ethically consistent."