I generally post 2-3 articles a month in the Realtime VoIP Community Reading Room. This month I started what can only become a series of articles delving into a current issue termed Network Neutrality. This first 10-page article presents a survey of several published thoughts and opinions from around the Internet and sets the stage for future exploration into how this issue might impact corporate business. The issue also lays the groundwork for discussions on trends like IMS and fixed mobile convergence.

Network Neutrality and Enterprise Business

by Ken Camp

There has been a great deal of conversation on the Internet about the issue of Net Neutrality and how it impacts the evolution of the Internet. What we now call Network Neutrality began as something called the End-to-End Principle. The nature of the Net Neutrality debate is driven by unified communications subjects, including the broad unified communications efforts including VoIP, IM Multimedia Subsystems (IMS), video collaboration, and fixed mobile convergence.

This article will introduce the concept of Network Neutrality for business and technical managers. It will survey some of the published viewpoints on Net Neutrality, both for and against, and will begin delving into the potential impact on enterprise business. Let’s begin with background information and published opinions from the Web on the subject. Although not quoted in their entirety, the articles are extensively hyperlinked to ease further research into the discussion.