Abolishing net neutrality in the US was supposedly about spurring telecoms— freed from regulations—to expand and upgrade their networks. At the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it was a top rationale for discarding Obama-era rules that prohibited telecoms from blocking, slowing, or otherwise discriminating against content and services, and from charging for “fast lanes,” or giving preferential treatment such as higher download speeds. Broadband investment rose from $72 billion in 2017 to $75 billion last year.