AT&T and Google spar over Google Voice

AT&T has sent a letter to the FCC urging a probe of the Google Voice services, saying Google's unified calling platform has an unfair advantage by refusing to terminate certain calls to rural areas, a practice the FCC has banned for telecom service providers. AT&T also argues that Google's service is violating the net neutrality provisions the FCC has passed down.

Google responded to the allegations of unfair competition with a post Friday on its Public Policy blog, where it claimed the Google Voice service was a web application, and is not intended to be a replacement for traditional phone service. Google claimed that since the Google Voice service requires an existing phone service to operate, it's not even competing to replace traditional phone services, as AT&T alleged. Google said it thinks AT&T is attempting to use this issue to undermine Web-based competition and innovation.

This issue is likely to take some time for the FCC to resolve, as the rejection and battle over the Google Voice iPhone App has. Whatever the commission rules on the matter, however, could have significant impact on VoIP providers and their relationship with traditional carriers.

For more:
- see the PC World article on the battle between AT&T and Google here
- see Google's response on its Public Policy blog here
- see Gary Kim's post on TMC about the implications of the case here 

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