Google Voice Can't Win For Losing in Regulation
There's an irony in what Google Voice has been through recently. One moment, it's being "unfairly treated" by Apple and AT&T, being crowned with the role of victim. However, that has lasted about as long as a graphic on the company's search home page. Now some are grumbling how Google is ignoring rural America with Google Voice and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating.
The charge is that Google is blocking calls to rural areas where the local carriers charge a premium for a connection.
As part of a broader quarrel with Google, AT&T has complained that Google Voice blocks calls to phone numbers in some rural communities to reduce the access charges it must pay. So-called "common carrier" regulations prevent AT&T and other big phone companies from blocking those same calls.Google Voice "has claimed for itself a significant advantage over providers offering competing services," AT&T said in a letter to the FCC last month. Those concerns were echoed in a letter sent to the FCC this week by 20 members of Congress who represent rural districts.Of course, there is a bit of misdirection and revenge on the part of AT&T. The carriers actually charge people to place their calls, and Google isn't. AT&T and the like don't like the fact that Google might be giving away services because it then raises the question of why the carriers charge as much as they do.
But it's a slick piece of defensive tactics. By raising the question with the FCC, which pretty much has to look into the issue, AT&T has potentially pushed Google into a big 'ole rural cow patty. The intent is to make operating conditions unpleasant enough that a newcomer like Google will have to think twice about doing more, or even staying in the business, if the economics prove untenable. I think both the companies are making some mistakes, based on their backgrounds.
AT&T isn't thinking like Google, and so doesn't get what the Internet giant is willing to do to establish itself in a space outside of search alone. It needs a broader business and has shown that it's willing to subsidize heavily to make that happen. That's the DNA and culture of the entire company, actually. Give things away, get users tied to you, and introduce advertising that can pay the freight. But it could get challenging, as this is undoubtedly just a first salvo.
And that's what Google and other Internet-bred companies still don't get. Regulations are more than a pain in the virtual rear. Used correctly, they become weapons that the telcos are expert at wielding. The deeper that Google wants to wade into the telecommunications pond, the more it's going to need a snorkel.
Image via stock.xchng user bdopkins, site standard license.