F.C.C. Looking Into Rejection of Google App for iPhone http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/te...gewanted=print
By
REED ABELSON
The
Federal Communications Commission is examining a recent decision by
Apple to reject an
iPhone application developed by
Google. On Friday, the commission sent letters to executives at Apple, Google and
AT&T, which is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States, saying it was “interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.”
In opening the investigation, the F.C.C. cited an article
in The New York Times this week describing Google’s frustration in winning approval from Apple to distribute its iPhone applications through Apple’s App Store. Apple recently rejected Google’s effort to bring a service called Google Voice to the iPhone, and the company also rescinded its earlier approval of several applications created by third-party developers that worked with Google Voice.
In its
letter to Apple, the F.C.C. asked the company to explain why it rejected the application and removed the related applications from its App Store. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment, saying the company does not typically discuss regulatory issues.