FCC Investigates AT&T-Apple-Google Love Triangle, Continued

This past Friday, August 21, Apple, Google, and AT&T all responded to the FCC's interrogatories that I wrote about here.

Apparently, according to Apple, the Google Voice application was never actually rejected, but was still under consideration. Apple claims that Google Voice replaces Apple's visual voice mail system, its ability to text, and its address book and was initially not added for this reason. Here, in Apple's own words, "It 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 for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail."

Apple claimed that there was no involvement by AT&T. Google starts its response by describing the Google Voice functionality. The section regarding the reason Google was told its app was rejected has been redacted for confidentiality purposes. AT&T denies any involvement whatsoever. Right.

Please note the pic at the top was apple's response to a user upset about the GV Mobile app being deleted at the same time that Google Voice was rejected (a third party version of Google Voice that had been out for a while). It should be interesting to see if the FCC buys it.

Apple's response may be found here.

Google's response may be found here.

AT&T's response may be found here.