AT&T Inc. renewed criticism of Google Inc.'s Voice phone service in another letter to federal regulators Wednesday that said the company blocks calls to far more than adult sex lines and expensive teleconference providers.
AT&T (NYSE:T) said it had identified a group of Benedictine nuns in Minnesota and the campaign office of Rep. Collin Peterson (D, Minn.) as being in one of the rural areas where Google Voice blocks calls.
The new letter to the Federal Communications Commission is the second AT&T has sent in which it asks regulators to force Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to live by the same rules as phone service providers.
Google has said its free Internet call-forwarding service isn't a telecom company. It says Google Voice is an Internet application that manages users' existing phone numbers and shouldn't be subject to the rules that govern traditional telecom providers like AT&T.
Google said it blocks calls mostly in rural areas where calls are more expensive and where so-called "traffic pumpers" route calls to drive up their revenue.
The letters come against the backdrop of a debate over net neutrality, the idea that phone and cable providers shouldn't control the way consumers use the Internet. Google and other Internet companies want such rules because their business depends on being able to move large amounts of data for content such as video.
The FCC is expected to propose a set of net neutrality rules next week.
Meanwhile, a group of congressmen have taken up the issue of Google Voice and call blocking, questioning why the search giant is allowed to block calls made to expensive areas when traditional providers' requests to do so were rejected by the FCC.
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