Washington — Recently, Google has been facing a tough time. Earlier this week, the search giant was busy defending the company’s book-scanning project, and now its Google Voice application is being questioned for additional investigation from the government. Two weeks after AT&T complained about anti-competitive activity by Google Voice — The US Federal Communications Commission on Friday responded via a letter sent to the Mountain View company, asking it to provide details by October 28 on its much-discussed Google Voice, explaining whether Google has violated telecommunications laws with its Internet phone service that has been refusing to connect some calls to rural areas.
The inquiry comes after complaints from telecom giant AT&T and a group of bipartisan lawmakers, blamed Google of violating FCC open-internet policies with Google Voice, requesting the authority to take up a review of the service that blurs the line between traditional telephone and Web services.
That question is the main cause of a new inquiry by the FCC, which sent a letter to Google on Friday afternoon, asking the Web search giant to explain how its application, Google Voice, works and information about how calls are routed, why it restricts calls to particular telephone numbers and how Google chooses the numbers.
“In light of pending commission proceedings regarding concern about so-called [access stimulation], the commission’s prohibition on call blocking by carriers, as well as the commission’s interest in ensuring that ‘broadband networks are widely deployed, open, affordable, and accessible to all consumers,’ we are interested in gathering facts that can provide a more complete understanding of this situation,” Sharon Gillett, chief of the FCC’s wireline bureau, wrote to Google Washington telecom and media counsel Richard Whitt.
Google Voice allows consumers to apply just one number issued by Google for home, office and cell. The free service also transcribes voice mail and offers unlimited free texting.
Among other things, Google must also clarify as to how many users of Voice now exist and whether the company plans to offer Voice on other than an “invitation-only” basis, according to the letter sent by Gillett.
Critics say that if the FCC determines that the Google Voice service is a traditional phone service, known as a common carrier program, the search giant could wind up being subjected to some of the same requirements as traditional carriers. Call blocking is prohibited by the FCC.
Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen, says Google “just ran into a huge minefield.”
Google has continuously insisted that it is not subject to government oversight, he notes. Should the FCC finalize to impose rules on Google’s emerging communications business, it “could no longer just basically do what it wants. Google would have to think a lot more about service offerings and how they impact consumers.”
Entner says the Web giant is parsing words. “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck — then it is a duck,” he says.
Google’s Voice service has also sparked a controversy between the world’s largest online search company and Apple Inc over why the voice application is not available on the iPhone.
A copy of the FCC letter can be found here (PDF) or here (TXT).