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Cue the John Williams sound track. (Image courtesy of Zack Whittaker)
Robert Quinn, Senior VP of the Federal Regulatory division of AT&T, wrote:
Google has been less than candid about the types of calls it is blocking. In fact, Google is blocking calls to, among others, an ambulance service, church, bank, law firm, automobile dealer, day spa, orchard, health clinic, tax preparation service, community center, eye doctor, tribal community college, school, residential consumers, a convent of Benedictine nuns, and the campaign office of a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Why would Google want to block calls to and from lawyers, nuns, and politicians? I mean, besides the obvious reasons. AT&T is no saint in this area either. Didn't they ask the FCC for permission to block the same numbers, or blocks of numbers, because of high fees charged by those exchanges? The difference is that by law they had to ask, and they were turned down. Google didn't ask, and that just rubs AT&T the wrong way.
Quinn continues:If the Commission cannot stop Google from blocking disfavored telephone calls..., then how could the Commission ever stop Google from also blocking disfavored websites from appearing in the results of its search engine; or prohibit Google from blocking access to applications that compete with its own email, text messaging, cloud computing and other services?By bringing search and other services like advertising into the argument, AT&T threatens Google's bread and butter business. Maybe they hope Google will fold rather than risk regulation of these other, more critical, areas. The rest of the letter reads more like flame-bait than legalese. Quinn accuses Google of having a "double-standard", "abusing its market power", of trying to "obfuscate the issue", "dominating" markets, instituting a "regime", being "unapologetic", "unilaterally" pushing its political messages, "hypocrisy", "exploiting" its power to "block competitors" and "secretly discriminate", breaking its "don't be evil" motto, pursuing an "agenda" to "adulterate" and "blatantly violate" FCC policies and principles, and of trying to "rig the game" in its favor to get a "free pass to discriminate" against "whatever content it pleases". Whew! The text of the letter is copied on subsequent pages so you can read it and decide for yourself. Expect a reply from Google soon. Continue Reading AT&T's Letter to the FCC >
posted by Ed Burnette
October 15, 2009 @ 2:08 pm
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