Sex, conference calls, and outdated FCC rules

Last month AT&T complained to the FCC about our policy of restricting outbound Google Voice calls to phone numbers in a small number of "rural" areas, just as other Internet applications do.

The reason we restrict calls to certain local phone carriers' numbers is simple. Not only do they charge exorbitant termination rates for calls, but they also partner with adult sex chat lines and "free" conference calling centers to drive high volumes of traffic. This practice has been called "access stimulation" or "traffic pumping" (clearly by someone with a sense of humor). Google Voice is a free application and we want to keep it that way for all our users -- which we could not afford to do if we paid these ludicrously high charges.

Read more at

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/10/sex-conference-calls-and-outdated-fcc.html