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Earlier this week, Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced his plans for Net Neutrality rules.  The new rule would make it such that all ISPs, including wireless providers will have to permit any device, service or application on their network as long as it is legal and non-harmful.  Needless to say, the wireless providers weren’t very happy about the idea.

Rather than just reiterating the line that it needs to be able to have full control of its arguably broken network, AT&T decided to take a different route: attack Google.  AT&T’s response to the proposed rule is that Google will need to be regulated as well, or at least Google Voice will have to be.  According to AT&T, Google should be subjected to the same rules it and other phone providers are.  The main issue AT&T raised is Google Voice blocks users from calling some rural areas.  AT&T says this should be part of the debate because it sees the Net Neutrality rule as also applying to “application, service, and content providers.”

This argument really doesn’t seem to make much sense.  It comes off as AT&T just trying to do anything it can to take a shot at Google Voice.  It doesn’t make sense for Google Voice to be subjected to the same rules as major telecoms since it’s more of just a call forwarding application.  Perhaps if current rules were changed Google Voice would fit into a category in which it would have to regulated.  As it stands it is a different kind of service that does not make sense regulate, especially not in the current invite-only state it is in.  What makes even less sense is why this issue arose from Net Neutrality, aside for the fact that it is from Google; Google Voice doesn’t seem to fit in the proposed rules.

Read [Reuters]