Friday Morning Links > US lawmakers want probe in to Google Voice blocking calls

On Wednesday, a group of 20 Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, mostly representing rural areas, wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the Internet company's ability to block calls.

"We are formally requesting an investigation by the FCC into the nature and function of Google Inc's voice service," they wrote in the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

In its fight with Google, AT&T has said the Google Voice service was blocking costly calls to phone numbers in certain rural areas in order to cut down on expenses.

For years telephone companies have complained to the FCC that third-party companies route adult chat and free conference calls through rural exchanges in order to generate fees. The FCC prohibited carriers from blocking such calls.

Google has said its Voice service is not a traditional phone call because it originates from a Web software tool and should not be regulated like telephone companies.

In the Wednesday letter, lawmakers including House Energy Commerce Committee members Steve Buyer, an Indiana Republican and Charlie Melancon, a Louisiana Democrat, said they find Google's position "ill conceived and unfair to our rural constituents."

"A company should not be able to evade compliance with important principles of access and competition set forth by the FCC by simply self-declaring it is not subject to them without further investigation," the lawmakers wrote.

After pressure from some lawmakers, the commission sent a letter to Google on Friday, asking the company why it restricts calls to certain numbers.

»www.reuters.com/article/politics···20091008

»hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/a···10A1.pdf