FCC Opens Google Voice Investigation
The FCC on Friday launched a formal inquiry into Google's Internet-based telephony service on the heels of reports that the company blocked calls to rural areas and as a result is reducing its access expenses. A letter from FCC Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett to Google Washington Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt requests answers to a number of questions about Google Voice by Oct. 28. The Commission wants an explanation of how Google Voice calls are routed and whether calls to particular numbers are restricted and the technological means by which those restrictions are implemented.
Other questions concern how Google informs its customers of restrictions in the numbers to which calls can be placed; the extent to which Google Voice functionalities are offered for free; and details about pay services. The FCC also asked for an explanation of the "invitation-only" manner in which users subscribe to the service and how Google believes the application fits within the law and FCC regulatory classifications. Twenty members of the House who represent rural communities urged the FCC earlier this week to open the investigation. Google has argued that in order to offer free or low-cost access, it restricts certain outbound calls from its Web platform to high-priced destinations.
Whitt responded to the FCC inquiry, which he said was spurred by an AT&T complaint, on the Google policy blog. "Google Voice is a free Web application, one intended to supplement and enhance existing phone lines, not replace them," he wrote. Whitt also said AT&T's approach "is what a former FCC chairman has called 'regulatory capitalism,' the practice of using regulation to block or slow down innovation."
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