Lawmakers Requesting Google Voice Investigation Received Money from AT&T

By Morgan Mayhew on October 8, 2009

A bi-partisan panel of congressional representatives have reportedly sent a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski demanding an investigation of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) for their management of their online calling software, Google Voice.

The application, Google Voice, allows users to obtain a universal phone number that will poll a user’s listed numbers for incoming calls. It also serves as a central voicemail system, even transcribing voice messages and emailing them to recipients.

Google Voice is a free service of Google. However it does offer low-cost international calling.

Google has programmed their service to block calls to numbers that are connected to telephone exchanges that charge higher rates. These exchanges are typically located in rural areas and run by local telephone providers.

Last month, AT&T (NYSE: T) filed an FCC complaint against Google on this issue. Critics of AT&T argue that it was a retaliatory filing after Google sent to the FCC a letter regarding the blocking of their Google Voice software by Apple.

AT&T is the cellular carrier for the iPhone and would be harmed by competition of the combination of Voice over IP (Internet calling) and Google’s innovative application.

Lawmakers and Google’s new competitor, AT&T, claim that this violates Net Neutrality, proposed legislation that would not allow preferential or prioritized treatment of traffic on the Internet. However, Net Neutrality only applies to the Internet and experts claim that comparing it to the telecommunication network is flawed as competition is not truly open.

The lawmakers who reportedly signed on to the letter were Steve Buyer (R-IN), Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and John Barrow (D-GA).

Of the four members of congress above, three accepted significant sums of money from AT&T’s political action committee for 2008 and 2010 races:

• Steve Buyer, R-Ind., $10,000 in 2008 and $5,000 in 2010 from AT&T


• Charlie Melancon, D-La., $9,000 in 2008 from AT&T


• Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., $11,250 in 2008 from AT&T

While Google does manage their own political action committee, no funds were contributed to the signatories of the letter in 2008 or 2010.

The action by the lawmakers is representative of the ongoing battle between AT&T, Apple and Google.