The Federal Communications Commission vote on December 14 to dismantle an Obama administration on net neutrality that was designed to ensure all data flows were processed at the same rate will have enormous impacts, both negative or positive depending on which side of business you sit. The legislation was designed to prevent the practice of “throttling,†which was used by ISPs deliberately to slow down some services.
What’s sure is that vote aside, the net neutrality decision will also now impact enterprise mobility.
Democrats in Washington worry that the repeal will lead to ISPs creating Internet “fast lanes†that can be accessed for a premium. But such lanes could severely affect the way apps are designed and also how the data which mobile devices commonly access is stored.
One of the big issues will be the adjustment in functions for enterprise applications that frequently access the cloud. There are obviously also big implications for video streaming services.
Companies that rely on apps hosted in the cloud will need to evaluate their speed, particularly if hosting partners is not included in these hypothetical fast lanes (perhaps because they choose not to pay the premiums that ISPs will be asking for).
There are also implications for internally-hosted apps, for example those that are proprietary to a company. If these rely on high bandwidth they may see a drop in performance as ISPs start to adopt throttling.
The return of throttling will also cause companies to revisit the value of wireless versus wired broadband. Enterprises may look to secure better bandwidth via wired connections, but for mobility, rates will need to be negotiated as competition is more intense and pricing levels vary.