Google Voice blocking fewer numbers
Google has cut the list of blocked numbers on its Voice service to under 100. But that’s unlikely to satisfy critics who argue that blocking even one number breaches regulations.
As we reported earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission began an investigation into the firm’s blocking of calls originating from certain locations, mainly rural areas. These locations are often used by adult chatline operators who take advantage of quirks in the system by which carriers pay fees to one another as a call is routed around the country.
Blocking such calls is a breach of FCC guidelines designed to make sure every location has access to phone services. However, Google maintains that it isn’t a phone network and thus not subject to the rules.
Google has now revealed that the ten locations with the most traffic on its service were receiving 161 times more calls than would be expected. As Google was charged 39 cents per minute for calls to these areas, these ten locations were responsible for 26.4 percent of its call costs in the US.
The firm says it originally blocked these locations completely. It’s now found a way to block specific numbers and says the total number blocked is now less than 100.
From a practical perspective, this may be enough to get rid of the FCC heat: if the system works as Google describes it, “innocent” individual users aren’t at risk of unfairly losing phone service. However, from a principled perspective, net neutrality isn’t a matter of degrees: blocking a few dozen numbers is just as much a breach as blocking thousands. That’s sure to continue to irk traditional phone companies which don’t have that option.
In the letter detailing the system, Google again argues that is not a telephone company but rather a software application which should be classed as an information service. It also presents two new arguments against being a phone company: there are no charges for domestic calls, and that the service is invitation only rather than being fully open to the public.
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