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It seems that ever since AT&T and Apple blocked a Google Voice app for the iPhone, Google and AT&T have been at each other’s throats. They are nit picking each other apart at this point. First, it was Google who said it wasn’t fair for AT&T to block its Google Voice application and now AT&T is coming back saying that Google should have to play by all the same rules that regular carriers do in regards to making phone calls.

Right now, Google Voice goes unregulated by the FCC and doesn’t have to follow some of the rules that the other carriers have. Some of the ones that AT&T is getting so worked up about is that Google doesn’t connect some rural calls because the calls are expensive to connect.

Google said that the free Internet call forwarding service it has is not a telecom company like AT&T. Instead, it is an internet application that uses the user’s existing phone number and therefore it should be subject to the rules of traditional land line carriers. Google went on to say that the only reason it blocks calls in some rural ares is because the calls are expensive and that “traffic pumpers” route calls through there to increase their revenues.

In my opinion, this is a fairly entertaining battle to watch between the two companies. AT&T and Google are both huge companies in their own right, but until now they really have just been working in their own space and not interfering with each other’s work. Now, they are starting to step on one another’s toes and it’s becoming an issue for both of them.

I can’t wait to see how this one turns out in the next few weeks. The FCC is going to be introducing some new net neutrality rules next week.

Jeremy

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