All the latest UK technology news, reviews and analysis

AT&T claims Google violates net neutrality with Voice app

by Iain Thomson

More from this author

26 Sep 2009

Be the first to comment

  • Tweet this
Google
Google claims to be one of the biggest supporters of net neutrality

AT&T has sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) team investigating the blocking of Google's Voice application by the Apple App Store, in which it claims the search giant is violating net neutrality.

The letter says that Google Voice breaks the rules as it blocks access to a few local carriers because of excessive prices to connect to those regions. AT &T and others tried similar blocking techniques in 2007 but were told that they were illegal by the FCC.

"According to Google, non-discrimination ensures that a provider 'cannot block fair access' to another provider. But that is exactly what Google is doing when it blocks calls that Google Voice customers make to telephone numbers associated with certain local exchange carriers," the letter said.

The letter is incendiary in that Google is one of the biggest supporters of net neutrality rules currently being considered by the FCC, while AT&T has been lobbying against the adoption of net neutrality rules.

The letter drew a quick response from Google with a blog posting by Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel.

"AT&T is trying to make this about Google's support for an open internet, but the comparison just doesn't fly," he wrote.

"The FCC's open internet principles apply only to the behavior of broadband carriers, not the creators of web-based software applications.

"Even though the FCC does not have jurisdiction over how software applications function, AT&T apparently wants to use the regulatory process to undermine web-based competition and innovation."

Do you agree?

 

Add your comment

We won't publish your address
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms & Conditions. Your comment will be moderated before publication.

Poll

IT priorities for 2012

What is the most important IT priority for your company this year?

97%

1%

1%

0%

1%

Connect with V3.co.uk

Sign up to our daily or weekly newsletters

Accurev

Top 5 software development challenges

This paper focuses on a series of best practices and techniques for development teams looking to improve their software development processes

Talend

Rubbish in, rubbish enterprise

Why good data management at all levels is essential in the modern business (video, 6mins)

Software Engineer - Performance

Software Engineer - Performance - Permanent - Cheshire...

SharePoint 2010 Developer, C#.NET/ASP.NET/SQL. Altrincham

Leading Financial Services Company requires experience...

Busienss Analyst

TOM, Business Analyst, Loan IQ, Process, Risk, Operations...

ASP.NET Developer – MVC, JavaScript, MS SQL, CSS, HTML, Photoshop

ASP.NET Developer - MVC, JavaScript, MS SQL, CSS, HTML...

To send to more than one email address, simply separate each address with a comma.