Google releaeses the non-redacted letter regarding Google Voice for iPhone to the FCC
Back in July, the FCC sent letters to Apple, AT&T, and Google asking about the rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone app.
When Google submitted their letter on August 21, they asked the FCC to redact certain portions that involved sensitive commercial conversations between two companies — namely, a description of e-mails, telephone conversations, and in-person meetings between executives at Google and Apple.
Shortly afterward, several individuals and organizations submitted Freedom of Information Act requests with the FCC seeking access to this information. While Google could have asked the FCC to oppose those requests, in light of Apple’s decision to make its own letter fully public and in the interest of transparency, they decided to drop their request for confidentiality. Today the FCC posted the full content of Google’s letter to their website (PDF).
Responding to the publication of Google’s unredacted answers to the Federal Communications Commission, Apple insists that it did not reject Google Voice.
“We do not agree with all of the statements made by Google in their FCC letter,” Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris told me. “Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google.”
If that’s the case, those discussions can’t be going very well. Presumably, if they were, we wouldn’t have seen the publication of Google’s damning comments to the FCC. Anyway, Google doesn’t seem to have provided any correspondence in which Apple described Google Voice as being “rejected.” Unless Google can do that, this is a case of he-said/Steve-said. And we all know who comes out on top when that happens.
