Quinn issued a statement saying that Google is "openly flaunting the call blocking prohibition that applies to its competitors" and is acting in a manner inconsistent with the spirit, if not the letter, of the FCC's fourth principle of its Internet policy statement. That principle calls for fair competition among providers of networks, applications, services and content. He added that it is ironic that Google is "flouting the so-called 'fifth principle of non-discrimination' for which Google has so fervently advocated."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appeared at the Brookings Institution on Monday to outline a multipronged strategy for expanding the agency's "network neutrality" guidelines and strengthening their enforcement. "While Google argues for others to be bound by net neutrality rules, it argues against itself being bound by common carriage," Quinn said. Google officials had not had a chance to review the AT&T letter and could not comment. Google posted a reply to AT&T's letter on its blog saying that the telecom company "is trying to make this about Google's support for an open Internet, but the comparison just doesn't fly."