AT&T has upped the ante in the ongoing debate around net neutrality in the US arguing that any proposed new rules should include web-based voice providers such as Google, reports Reuters. In a letter late last week to the FCC, the US regulator, AT&T said that Google would have an unfair advantage if its voice service (Google Voice) is not subject to the same rules proposed by the FCC on operators. “To the extent ‘net neutrality’ is animated by a concern about ostensible Internet ‘gatekeepers,’ that concern must necessarily apply to application, service, and content providers,” wrote Robert Quinn, AT&T’s senior vice-president for federal regulations. Last week, the regulator proposed new rules requiring operators to open their networks to any legitimate Internet content or service without discrimination. The new rules propose to regulate mobile Internet services in the same way as fixed-line Internet – a plan that has been vigorously contested by the country’s mobile operators, who argue that they need to protect their networks from bandwidth-hogging applications.

Google hit back at AT&T’s accusations, claiming that the company’s voice application is a web software tool and should not be regulated in the same way as the networks. “We feel comfortable that it is not a regulated service,” Richard Whitt, a Washington DC-based lawyer for Google, told Reuters. “It is a service that originates from an online platform.” However, in its letter, AT&T cited media reports claiming that Google Voice was blocking some calls to phone numbers in certain rural areas in order to cut down on expenses, something the mobile networks are prohibited from doing. “Google Voice thus has claimed for itself a significant advantage over providers offering competing services,” AT&T’s Quinn said. The FCC said it had received AT&T’s letter and was reviewing it.