• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 3, 2009

You'd think AT&T and Apple might have seen this one coming. The Federal Communications Commission has sent letters to the telecom giant and Apple late Friday asking about why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related apps from the App Store.

The FCC inquiry letters come amid heightened government scrutiny of the telecom industry practices in recent months including wireless open access and exclusive agreements between wireless carriers and handset makers, like that between AT&T and Apple for the iPhone.

In its letter to AT&T, the FCC demanded to know what role, if any, the carrier played in rejecting the Google Voice app and what role it plays in the approval of iPhone apps generally. It also questions AT&T about how the carrier certifies apps used on devices running over its 3G network and whether it limits use of certain third-party apps.

That suggests the FCC isn't just looking at rejection of the Google Voice app narrowly but using the high-profile incident to examine open access and handset exclusivity more widely. The blocking of the Google Voice app, which gives users a single number across all phone services and allows cheap international calls, among other features, drew wide attention in the tech and business press.

The letter to Apple also asks for information about the company's approval process for apps, which has frequently been criticized for being ambiguous and unpredictable.

For its part, AT&T told The Wall Street Journal Friday that it declined to comment on the inquiry, saying it doesn't manage or approve applications for Apple's App Store. The nonprofit advocacy group Free Press earlier this year asked the FCC to investigate Apple's limiting of access to Skype's iPhone app to a WiFi connection rather than working on AT&T's 3G network.

While Apple imposed the restriction on Skype, AT&T's top public policy executive, Jim Cicconi, said this spring the carrier had "every right" not to promote the services of a wireless rival. Certainly AT&T would make the same argument against Google Voice.

The FCC inquiry must be especially irksome for AT&T since it casts Google in the role of victim. The companies have been on opposite sides of the net neutrality debate and AT&T last year joined in the lobbying effort against Google's proposed search deal with Yahoo. AT&T won that fight but the battle over whether net neutrality applies to the wireless space appears to be just heating up. AT&T and Apple are to respond to the FCC letters by Aug. 21.