AT&T speaks up
The War of the Roses between the two firms began a while back when Google Voice was rejected as an app on the iPhone, carried exclusively in the US by the AT&T network. An FCC investigation ensued and, although Apple later took the fall, admitting it had itself rejected the app, a war of words between Google and AT&T followed, with both firms crying "hypocrisy!"
AT&T started the ball rolling by writing to the FCC complaining that the Google Voice unified communications service broke the law, resulting in a letter from the FCC to Google asking some rather pointed questions about why Google blocked certain numbers in rural areas and lines with high connection fees.
Google, responded with claims it did not need to conform to the same regulations as AT&T, as it was not a telco. In other words, Google Voice may look like a duck and quack like a duck, but Google claims it is most certainly not a duck. And doesn't give a duck about AT&T's complaints either.
But refusing to let the matter go, AT&T has now written yet another letter to the FCC, with its most scathing attack on the Internet giant to date.
The epistle, penned by AT&T senior vice president, Robert W. Quinn, Jr., is entitled "Google Voice; Establishing Just and Reasonable Rates for Local Exchange Carriers" and begins by calling Google out for double standards on net neutrality.
"As communications services increasingly migrate to broadband Internet-based platforms, we can now see the power of Internet-based applications providers to act as gatekeepers who can threaten the ‘free and open' Internet. Google's double-standard for ‘openness' - where Google does what it wants while other providers are subject to Commission regulations - is plainly inconsistent with the goal of preserving a ‘free and open' Internet ecosystem." Ooo-er.
