FCC responses are in: AT&T disavows any knowledge of App Store internal shenanigans

Engadget got a copy of AT&T's response to the FCC inquiries, and to sum it up: the Death Star finds the FCC's lack of faith disturbing. The telecom giant says that it neither supported not opposed the Google Voice apps for iPhone -- in fact, Apple didn't mention the GV apps to AT&T, nor does Apple typically consult AT&T on App Store approvals. The Apple & Google responses are just coming in now.

In a section of the letter that Engadget has posted, AT&T does acknowledge rare occasions where the company has consulted on app approvals with Apple -- but only where an app might be responsible for 'significant network congestion,' like SlingPlayer. Are we to assume from this that any telephony-related geldings or rejections (ahem, no Skype over 3G) are due to Apple acting completely on its own? That's a mite far-fetched, but with any luck we'll be seeing a similar letter from Apple shortly.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/atandt-tells-the-fcc-it-h…

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Engadget got a copy of AT&T's response to the FCC inquiries, and to sum it up: the Death Star finds the FCC's lack of faith...

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MRCUR

Why are there two posts for this subject TUAW? That's now three today and it's annoying when trying to discuss it. Just saying...

August 21 2009 at 6:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott R

In case you haven't seen it, Apple's response is linked to right from their front page.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/apple-answers-fcc-questions/

As I've said before, anybody blaming AT&T for the GV rejection doesn't actually understand how GV works.

Virtually every comment above is addressed in Apple's response, by the way.

August 21 2009 at 5:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

SSteve

Say there are 50 (more than 40) reviewers. They receive 8500 submissions a week. That's 170 apps/reviewer every week. And each submission is looked at by two reviewers. That makes 340 reviews per week per person. That's less than 10 minutes per review.

Does Apple have an app review sweatshop somewhere? Because that's what those numbers sound like.

August 21 2009 at 5:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve J

Uh yeah I call B.S. on AT&T saying that they had no influence on the GV app rejection.

August 21 2009 at 5:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Steve J's comment

MRCUR

If what Apple claims the app does (as in taking over control of voicemail and SMS) is true, then I completely understand why Apple denied the app originally. Now I'm not saying I agree with Apple rejecting the app, but if Google didn't add a way to allow use of Apple's SMS and phone apps by default, this clearly violates the guidelines Apple has for apps.

What I think needs to be looked into further is exactly what the Google Voice App does to the iPhone, as well as AT&T consulting with Apple over apps like SlingPlayer and Skype. Of course AT&T (and Apple) are hiding behind the ToS that AT&T posted days before Sling was launched, which IMO is unreasonable.

August 21 2009 at 5:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply