E-Commerce Blog

Google said late Wednesday that its free messaging and calling service, Google Voice, blocks calls to fewer than 100 specific phone numbers likely to be adult chat lines and free conference call services. The company made the disclosure in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC opened an inquiry into call blocking by Google Voice earlier this month after AT&T complained that the service restricts calls to rural communities where local phone companies charge high connection fees.

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Google Voice Whittles Blocked Number List to Under 100

If you view AT&T and Google as squabbling high-tech siblings and the Federal Communications Commission as the harried parent, then AT&T has won the latest round of attention-getting theatrics, thanks to the FCC’s Friday decision to investigate Google Voice. It was the carrier’s initial complaint against Google in late September that prompted the government’s probe regarding Voice, which the search engine maintains is a software-based application and not a wireline telecom service.

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FCC Digs Deeper Into Google Voice Dilemma

The net neutrality debate has officially taken a left turn into weirdness, following weekend revelations that AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the Google Voice application as a potential violation of open communications policies. This would be the same AT&T that just last week argued against the need for making the FCC’s current Net neutrality principles apply to wireless providers. This came after new FCC chair Julius Genachowski announced he would begin the process of codifying those principles as official regulations.

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AT&T Bad-Mouths Google Voice to FCC

Several telephone companies have suggested to the FCC that it change its definition of broadband. Verizon, AT&T and Comcast are asking the government to define broadband transmissions as anything over 768 Kbps downstream and 200 Kbps upstream. They were responding to an FCC call seeking definitions to help it develop a national broadband plan under the terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. On August 20, the FCC sent out its public notice seeking to define broadband.

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Big-League ISPs Press FCC to Lower Bar on ‘Broadband’

EU lawmakers voted Wednesday for a new price cap that will cut the cost of sending some text messages by nearly two-thirds. Phone users will pay a maximum of 11 euro cents, or about 14 US cents, for sending text messages from another European Union nation starting July 1, down from the current average cost of 28 euro cents. The European Parliament also approved new, lower caps for “roaming” calls that set a ceiling of 43 euro cents per minute for making a call and 19 euro cents for receiving one.

Originally posted here:
EU Regulators Set Texting-Without-Borders Fee Caps