UPDATE: Google To FCC: Apple Rejected Google Voice For iPhone
September 18 2009 - 11:57AM
Dow Jones News
Google Inc. (GOOG) disclosed that earlier this year, Apple Inc.
(AAPL) rejected Google's new Google Voice phone service for the
popular iPhone's application store.
Apple told the Federal Communications Commission last month that
it hadn't rejected Google Voice for the iPhone. Google's new phone
service hasn't yet been approved for the iPhone app store, but
Apple said it is still studying it.
Google, Apple and AT&T Inc. (T) all were asked by the FCC
about reports that Google Voice had been rejected for the iPhone
store. The iPhone is carried exclusively on AT&T's network,
which allows the telecommunications company to subsidize the cost
of the phone.
Google originally kept confidential its response to the FCC's
question about the company's discussions with Apple. But Google
notified the FCC on Thursday that it was lifting its request for
confidential treatment.
In a blog posting Friday, Google's Washington telecom and media
counsel Richard Whitt said the company at first asked the FCC to
redact that portion of its letter because it "involved sensitive
commercial conversations between two companies."
According to the now-unredacted parts of Google's letter, Apple
informed the company July 7 that it was rejecting the Google Voice
application for the iPhone. "Apple believed the application
duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone," Google's
letter said.
Apple told the FCC last month that Google Voice "appears to
alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the
iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user
interface with its own user interface."
Apple didn't redact any portions of its letter.
Whitt said several people submitted Freedom of Information Act
requests to the FCC for access to Google's redacted content.
"In light of Apple's decision to make its own letter fully
public and in the interest of transparency, we decided to drop our
request for confidentiality," he said.
The unredacted version of Google's letter to the FCC was posted
on the FCC Web site Friday.
-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263;
fawn.johnson@dowjones.com