AT&T complains that Google violating net neutrality with Google Voice

AT&T Says Google Voice Violates Net Neutrality Principles [NYT Bits Blog]

In the midst of the kerfuffle over whether Apple or AT&T decided to reject the Google Voice application for the iPhone and why, AT&T has filed a letter with the FCC alleging that Google Voice violates the commission's principles of network nondiscrimination. Google Voice provides users call routing, enhanced voicemail and free text messaging, but apparently doesn't connect long-distance calls to every number. That's what AT&T alleges - that Google discriminates against certain conference call numbers and other phone numbers due to the expense of connecting Google Voice users to those numbers.

Make no mistake, AT&T is simply opening a new front in the battle over allowing Google Voice on the iPhone, which the FCC is currently conducting an inquiry over. But, it has raised legitimate questions about the Google Voice product and whether or not Google is violating the same network neutrality principles that it claims to espouse.

As this article points out, Google's decision to pick-and-choose which phone numbers to connect to is a result of a myriad of long-distance phone regulations, so it remains to be seen whether the FCC considers this issue as a network discrimination case.