Google Voice Call Blocking Work Around

Engineers for Google Voice have found a way to block about 100 specific numbers they suspect of traffic pumping, rather than entire area codes, the Google Public Policy blog says. This will restore access for Google Voice users to almost all the local lines it had blocked prior to AT&Ts complaints about the practice. In a response to the FCC's request for details about Google Voice, it was announced that they have figured out a customized solution for restricting calls to specific numbers engaged in what high-cost traffic pumping schemes, such as adult chat and "free" conference call lines.

Over the past month, the Federal Communications Commission, Google and AT&T have been sending letters back and forth concerning Net neutrality and the how to deal with the practice of traffic pumping. AT&T wants Google to abide by the same standards as other local telephone service providers, while Google wants broadband Internet providers such as AT&T to comply with proposed Net neutrality principles.

Google claims that the top 10 telephone prefixes (area code plus the first three digits of a seven digit number), accounted for 26 percent of Google Voices monthly connection costs. Google sees the current workaround as a temporary fix; their position is that the FCC needs to overhaul the local carrier compensation rules that caused the problem in the first place.

"While we've developed a fix to address this problem, the bottom line is that we still believe the Commission needs to repair our nation's broken carrier compensation system. The current system simply does not serve consumers well and these types of schemes point up the pressing need for reform," Richard Whitt wrote in the Google Public Policy blog.