Charter Communications is really excited to tell you about all its new broadband network investments.

"Increasing Flagship Broadband Speeds; Giving Customers More For Less," is the title of the company's latest announcement on this topic. The second-largest cable company in the US has increased its standard download speed from 60Mbps to 100Mbps—"at no extra cost to our customers"—while providing speeds of 200Mbps or 1Gbps in some markets. Gigabit service is available in "Oahu, Hawaii with additional markets to be launched in the weeks ahead," Charter said.

The amazing thing is that Charter is doing all this despite the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules and related Title II regulation of ISPs as common carriers. In July, Charter told the FCC that the "broad and vague prohibitions" in the rules "have caused broadband providers to reconsider innovations and investments out of concern that regulators could squelch, or force significant modifications to, those ventures after funds had been expended."

The uncertainty caused by the rules "undercuts the continuous private investment needed for the Internet to flourish," Charter said. Charter said it has "experienced the deterrent effects described above in its own operations" itself since the rules were imposed in 2015.

Under such troubling circumstances, how could any ISP invest more in its network? Title II's alleged impact on investment is the primary reason that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has cited for dismantling net neutrality rules, after all.

But in reality, Charter's capital expenditures rose between 2015 and 2016, a period encompassing the first full year in which the rules were in effect. The company's network investments continued to rise in 2017 despite the rules remaining on the books.

Title II “didn’t really hurt us”

What accounts for the difference between what Charter tells the FCC and its actual network investments? Perhaps the answer can be found in Charter's statements to investors.

"Title II, it didn't really hurt us; it hasn't hurt us," Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said at an investor event in December 2016, according to a report by advocacy group Free Press.

Publicly traded companies like Charter are required to give investors accurate financial information, including a description of risk factors involved in investing in the company.

Rutledge added that Title II "has the potential of hurting us." But Free Press' report in May 2017 noted that "Charter's capital investments went up 15 percent after the FCC's Open Internet vote (when we include the pre-merger investments made by Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks). And not only are Charter's investments up, they're 12 percent higher than the estimates Charter gave to investors prior to closing that merger." (Charter bought TWC and Bright House in May 2016.)

Charter's statements to the FCC and investors mirror those made by other ISPs. When talking to the FCC, ISPs say the rules are investment killers; when talking to investors, ISPs aren't too bothered by Title II or the net neutrality rules. The discrepancy has provided ammunition to net neutrality supporters—for example, see, "Charter admits net neutrality didn't hurt broadband investment" in DSLReports.

Although Charter says it doesn't "block, throttle or interfere with the lawful activities of our customers," it is hoping that the net neutrality repeal will help it fight off at least one lawsuit.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Charter this year, claiming that its TWC subsidiary made false promises of fast Internet service. Charter claims that the FCC's attempt to preempt state government regulation of broadband supports the company's motion to dismiss the case.

“Cautious, renewed” investment

Charter seemingly anticipated that net neutrality advocates might point to the company's actual investments when trying to refute the cable company's claims about net neutrality rules harming investment.

Charter told the FCC in its July filing that it has "take[n] cautious, renewed steps towards some of these innovations and investments in recent months," because of "increased optimism" that the rules will be eliminated.

But as we noted previously, Charter increased investments in 2016, before there was any indication from the FCC that the rules would be overturned.

Charter also claimed that it halted a Wi-Fi network project because of the net neutrality rules:

Charter put on hold a project to build out its out-of-home Wi-Fi network, due in part to concerns about whether future interpretations of Title II would allow Charter to continue to offer its Wi-Fi network as a benefit to its existing subscribers, or whether Charter would be compelled to separate access to its wireless network from its wired broadband services and sell it separately—a requirement that would significantly affect the business model, pricing, and investment case for such a buildout.

Pai's office has cited this example in his push to end net neutrality rules. But there's nothing in the rules that would require anything like what Charter is suggesting. The rules didn't stop Comcast from building out a network of more than 15 million Wi-Fi hotspots by December 2016.

“Charter’s ongoing investments”

Charter has been criticized for allegedly dragging its feet in upgrading the speeds of former TWC customers while moving those same customers onto higher-priced packages. The city of Lexington, Kentucky, held a public hearing to discuss problems with Charter's post-merger customer service.

That may help explain why Charter is now trumpeting its speed upgrades. Besides raising Internet speeds, Charter's new press release said its video service is using "more efficient bandwidth management and advanced compression technologies" in order to improve video quality and reduce bandwidth requirements. The bandwidth no longer needed for video "can then be dedicated to significantly increasing our broadband speeds."

All of these upgrades, Charter said, "were made possible by Charter's ongoing investments in infrastructure and technology."

Disclosure: The Advance/Newhouse Partnership, which owns 13 percent of Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.