With some phone calls being blocked by its Google voice service the software giant, Google has been accused of being a hypocrite in term of net neutrality by telecommunications provider, AT&T.
The violation of the net neutrality principles, which Google has openly supported now for quite a while, has been claimed by AT&T in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. In return it has been claimed that AT&T are comparing oranges and apples by one of Google’s key lobbyists and a Washington telecommunications lawyer, Richard Whitt, as he defended Google’s position.
The fourth principle in the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement, which calls for fair competition between network, content, service and applications, is said to have been violated by Google blocking phone calls to some rural communities over its Google Voice service according to the letter that was sent to the FCC recently.
In a recent statement the senior vice president focusing on federal regulation, Robert Quinn said “By openly flaunting the call-blocking prohibition that applies to its competitors, Google is acting in a manner inconsistent with the spirit, if not the letter, of the FCC’s fourth principle contained in its Internet Policy Statement. Ironically, Google is also flouting the so-called ‘fifth principle of non-discrimination’ for which Google has so fervently advocated.”
Mr Whitt gave his response to these claims saying that although Google were blocking some calls to rural regions it is because extremely high rates are being charged by the smaller local telephone carriers in order to connect calls to long distance companies like AT&T.
Rural telephone companies are allowed to charge as much as 100 times more in connection fees than the larger local phone companies do and this is due to the rural telecoms companies being smaller in size.
Source – Zdnet Asia