AT&T, Google still waging battle over Google Voice on the iPhone

Now that Apple has backed out of the bickering, it's U.S. iPhone partner is squarely in the crosshairs of the world's largest internet search engine. AT&T now wants to know why Google Voice blocks phone calls from being made to some countries, and wants the FCC to "order Google to play by the same rules as its competitors." In other words, AT&T doesn't want, but needs, Google to be ruled by the same regulations it faces every day. Is that possible? Is Google a telecom company now?

That line, which gets even blurrier by the day, may go away soon. It's true that the Google Voice product undercuts revenue streams from established competitors. The ultra-popular internet calling service Skype has been doing this for years, though. Large telecom carriers, which face the real threat of becoming commodity providers (i.e., just a "data pipe"), needed to have started defending their turf years ago much more aggressively.

But then again, AT&T is also calling Google a hypocrite because it intentionally blocks Google Voice from calling certain numbers (most likely due to revenue reasons). With the FCC's stance against just that, AT&T has a good point. The fight should get much more interesting from here.