The most surprising supporter of the FCC's push for Net Neutrality has been Sprint, especially considering the strong opposition of the regulations from its rivals like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Speaking to Reuters, Sprint's CTO Stephen Bye said the company believes the tougher net neutrality regulations imposed by the FCC are good for its customers, and won't stop its rival telecoms from investing in their networks at all.
"Our competitors are going to continue to invest."
"It's one of those topics that is highly charged, highly politicized and we took a step back and said it works in the interest of our customers, our consumers, and the industry, and we frankly found some of the arguments (of our competitors) to be less than compelling," Bye said to Reuters. Sprint points to the recent record-breaking spectrum auction that had AT&T and Verizon spending a combined $28.6 billion on AWS-3 spectrum licenses as proof the industry will continue to push forward, even with net neutrality in place.
"The notion that some of our competitors are suggesting that they will stop investing if Title II is brought into effect... That's something we've refused," Bye told Reuters. "Our competitors are going to continue to invest, so they are representing a situation that won't play out," Bye said. A number of telecoms are expected to mount a challenge against new net neutrality regulations in court after the FCC votes on them on February 26th.
Verge Video: What to know about the FCC's recent net neutrality proposal