Summary
Regarding the complaint letter to the FCC about Google Voice blocking calls to rural areas, AT&T appears to be stooping to pettiness and conjuring it into net neutrality. Google is focused on building a customer base with IP connections to advance unified communications (UC).
Analysis
The actual four-page document submitted by AT&T to the FCC decisively presents the key issues of telephone service versus Internet application. However, the letter’s introduction is questionable in calling Google a “noisome trumpeter” of net neutrality. And AT&T cites “numerous press reports” as evidence that Google Voice is blocking calls to some rural areas. There are no attachments of customer complaints or evidence of calling disservice.
The letter to the FCC is from AT&T’s Federal Regulatory and deduces from the hearsay about blocked rural calls that Google saves on the higher termination costs imposed by rural telcos. The deduction might be invalid with Google focused on bigger strategies instead of small costs. Google will target calls to and from users that have IP connections to build a high-value customer base. Unified Communications (UC) will not proliferate by processing calls to landline.
AT&T points out the FCC’s fourth principle of the Internet Policy Statement to be about competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers. The FCC issue will be if customers with IP connections are favored in making calls with lower costs and more UC capabilities. The goal for the U.S. market has to be that competition improves communications connectivity regardless of the type of provider.
Gregg Kail consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
