So why the doom-and-gloom talk? Simply put, it's all about the bottom line. ISPs want to avoid any rules that might raise their costs or invite competition, and requiring them to treat all internet services fairly (instead of blocking or slowing down those services) could lead to that trouble. However, increased costs might be hard to avoid. After all, it's not as if your local cable giant is going to scale back when a rival telecom (or an upstart like Google Fiber) is promising faster data. In short, the warnings of reduced investments ring hollow -- spending is likely to increase so long as there are speed upgrades and alluring new services waiting in the wings.

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