Google says it's now blocking 'fewer than 100' numbers in Google Voice
The crux of AT&T's recent complaint to the FCC regarding Google Voice was that Google -- not being subject to the common carrier rules that help facilitate fair, open telephone networks -- was blocking customers from accessing numbers managed by rural carriers that charged higher connection fees, thereby giving it a leg up on its Old Guard competition by saving cash in ways AT&T and others are legally barred from doing. Google's hitting back today, not by agreeing to submit to common carrier rules (come on now, don't be ridiculous) but by saying in a statement to the FCC that it's now blocking calls to "fewer than 100" numbers in total now that it has finished implementing new back-end capabilities that allow it to single out specific numbers rather than entire exchanges. Google complains that calls to the top ten exchanges accounted for 26 percent of its entire connection fee outlay -- but yeah, that's pretty much what telcos have been dealing with since time immemorial, so the bellyaching's likely to fall on a lot of deaf ears. For what it's worth, the company is still asking the FCC to make sweeping changes to connection fee policy, but whether this ends up getting them out of AT&T's more immediate concerns remains to be seen.
[Via Phone Scoop]
