The research house says the uncertainties of neutrality regulation have impacted operators such as AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and vendors such as Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) in the wireline broadband space, forcing a shift in priorities until regulations are finalized.

Legal and business frameworks that may be rolled into net neutrality, such as local loop unbundling, significantly alter the investment models for carriers, ABI says. Accordingly, many companies have been allocating resources away from wireline technologies into other areas.