In its Friday letter written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), AT&T said that Google's supposed support for net neutrality is flouted by its non-compliance with the rules - evident from the fact that its Voice service does not connect phone calls in some rural areas.

Highlighting the paradoxical stand on the part of the Internet search giant - which, as per AT&T is "one of the most noisome trumpeters of so-called 'net neutrality' regulation" - AT&T argued that Google is openly violating the net neutrality rules that it claims to back.

Noting that Google is not a network operator, the letter was intended at giving the contentious Google Voice issue a new perspective.

Robert Quinn, Senior VP of AT&T's federal regulatory affairs, saying that Google Voice does not connect to all markets, said in the letter that Google Voice is essentially "a creatively packaged assortment of services that are already quite familiar to the Commission... as such, it would appear to be subject to the same call blocking prohibition applicable to providers of other telecommunications services."

Further adding that Google Voice is an application, Quinn said potential competition gets thwarted when "one provider unilaterally appropriates to itself regulatory advantages over its competitors."

Meanwhile, rebuffing AT&T's complaint, Richard Whitt, Washington telecom and media counsel for Google, said that the FCC's open Internet rules are not applicable to the creators of Web-based software applications.