Wall Street Knows Darn Well That FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Won't Harm Broadband: Stocks Went Up

from the in-case-you-were-wondering dept

For all the hubbub from the big broadband players about how having the FCC regulate broadband connections under Title II would kill off investment and harm their ability to innovate, Wall Street has always known that's hogwash. While saying scary things to the press, all the big broadband companies were quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) telling investors that Title II wouldn't really change anything. In the last couple months, I've seen a few different Wall Street analyst reports all basically saying that they don't think the FCC's rules will really have any impact at all on the bottom line for broadband players.

And, indeed, it appears the stock market acted accordingly. Following Tom Wheeler's official announcement that the FCC would move to reclassify under Title II, all the key broadband players saw their stocks jump up, not down. If it was really that bad, you would have seen the opposite.

Now, you could argue that the market was already pretty sure what the FCC was going to do and had priced that into the stock prices -- and it's a fair argument as many of the stocks did see some decline at the beginning of the year as the likely rules became clear. But the idea that this was going to create some sort of bloodbath for investment and the internet doesn't seem to be supported by the folks investing in those companies.

Filed Under: fcc, investment, net neutrality, title ii, wall street
Companies: at&t, comcast, time warner cable, verizon