Collaboration Loop, By Irwin Lazar, 1/3/06

With the finalization last week of the AT&T / BellSouth merger, Net Neutrality issues are once again taking center stage. What does Net Neutrality mean to enterprises struggling to deliver the same level of application services to all workers regardless of physical location?

Last week the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted final approval to the merger between AT&T and Bell South. As part of its process for obtaining this approval, AT&T agreed that it would refrain from degrading or prioritizing network traffic for a period of two years after the merger received final approval (see Information Week: “AT&T Merger Contains First Net Neutrality Guidelines”). Various definitions of Net Neutrality exist but they all boil down to a simple concept, that providers of Internet access services should not take any action that would result in varying performance of applications using the Internet access service.

Net Neutrality has been a gray concept for years, as Internet service providers routinely filter traffic on their networks such as blocking TCP port 25 (SMTP) to fight spam, block other ports to fight worms, and throttle BitTorrent traffic to prevent peer-to-peer file sharing applications from overwhelming available bandwidth. But those concerned with Net Neutrality see a more ominous prospect ahead, that Internet service providers will begin to filter application such as VOIP or video, not to protect overall network performance, but to degrade third party applications that compete with those offered directly by the service provider. The example often cited is a service provider blocking third party VOIP services so those services can’t compete with voice services delivered directly by the provider. For proponents of Web 2.0 applications and services, Net Neutrality is an essential requirement to ensure the usability of such applications.

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