Calling Google out
The letter goes on to say that not only does Google block certain kinds of rural phone calls and adult sex-chat lines to avoid having to pay high fees, it also blocks an ambulance service, churches, banks, law firms, car dealerships, day spas, orchards, health clinics, tax preparation services, community centres, eye doctors, tribal community colleges, schools, residential consumers, the campaign office of a U.S. representative and a convent of Benedictine nuns.
Nuns, for God's sake! If that doesn't send Google to hell, AT&T doesn't know what will.
AT&T further lambasts Google for "abus[ing] its market power" and insists the firm should not be made exempt from federal laws preventing such call blocking behaviour.
To galvanise its point, AT&T also apparently felt the need to remind the FCC that, "in preparing a complaint to challenge the Google/Yahoo arrangement, the [U.S.] Department [of Justice] reportedly concluded that Google had a "monopoly" in these markets and the proposed arrangement "would have furthered [Google's] monopoly."
Adding insult to injury, AT&T's letter also accuses Google of broad-scale media manipulation, pointing to Google's online blockade of political ads for US Senator Susan Collins, a critic of Google's net neutrality partner Moveon.org. AT&T also claims Google blocked The Inner City Press from Google News, owing to that publication's criticism of the United Nation Development Program, which Google sponsors.
Quinn, Jr. also complains that Google purportedly illegitimately bought ads on its own ad auction services to push the agenda for keywords like "net neutrality". Quinn, Jr. notes there is a certain amount of irony in this as "Google appears oblivious to the hypocrisy of its net neutrality advocacy relative to its own conduct."
