• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 27, 2009

AT&T has accused Google of violating common carrier rules as well as net neutrality principles by blocking Google Voice calls to some rural locations.

"We urge the Commission to level the playing field and order Google to play by the same rules as its competitors," AT&T Senior Vice President Robert W. Quinn, Jr. said in a letter sent Friday to the Federal Communications Commission.

But Google says that net neutrality principles apply only to Internet service providers, not companies such as itself. Google also argues that it should not be required to follow the same common carrier rules as telecoms, which must connect all calls.

"Despite AT&T's efforts to blur the distinctions between Google Voice and traditional phone service, there are many significant differences," telecom and media counsel Richard Whitt said Friday in a blog post.

Google acknowledges blocking some rural calls, but says that it does so in order to "provide consumers with free or low-cost access to as many advanced communications features as possible."

Some rural carriers charge extremely high rates to connect calls coming from long-distance or wireless numbers -- up to 100 times more than large local phone companies, according to USA Today -- making it very expensive for companies to put calls through to rural destinations. But AT&T says Google's blocking of calls gives it an unfair advantage over traditional phone companies.

Whitt counters that the FCC should not treat Google like traditional telephone service providers because Google Voice doesn't replace traditional phone connections. "In fact, you need an existing land or wireless line in order to use it," he writes. "Importantly, users are still able to make outbound calls on any other phone device."

AT&T also argues that if Google Voice is not considered a traditional telephone service, it would be an Internet application and governed by the FCC's 2005 Internet policy statement on neutrality. One of the principles set out in that statement specifies that consumers are entitled to competition among application and service providers. AT&T argues that Google is not competing fairly because it "unilaterally appropriates to itself regulatory advantages over its competitors."

In addition, a fifth principle proposed this week by FCC chair Julius Genachowski would ban Internet service providers from discriminating by blocking access to other providers. AT&T says that Google is engaging in discrimination "when it blocks calls that Google Voice customers make to telephone numbers associated with certain local exchange carriers."

But Whitt dismisses those claims, arguing that neutrality principles don't apply to "the creators of Web-based software applications."

AT&T's move comes the same week that Genachowski proposed that the agency issue rules codifying its 2005 neutrality principles. Given the timing, broadband advocacy group Free Press dismissed AT&T's complaint as a "political stunt." Derek Turner, Free Press research director, said that AT&T's letter was intended "to distract attention from the important work the FCC has begun on network neutrality."

He added: "The FCC certainly should not let AT&T's misdirection delay its rulemaking on the separate issue of net neutrality."