Free Press charged in a Dec. 13 letter to the FCC that Verizon Wireless may be denying access to Google Wallet because it is developing its own mobile payment technology through a joint venture with AT&T and T-Mobile called Isis.
Last week, Google said that Verizon Wireless was pressuring it to withhold Google Wallet from the Galaxy Nexus phone being sold by the carrier beginning next month.
Verizon, however, issued a statement saying that it was not blocking the Google Wallet application, but that it was in discussions with Google to ensure that the application is “integrated into a new, secure, and proprietary hardware element in our phones.”
But Free Press questioned Verizon’s security defense, saying that it was an anti-competitive move on the carrier’s part.
“According to the facts available at this time, it seems that Verizon Wireless likely is abusing its gatekeeper control over a substantial percentage of the national market for mobile Internet users in order to block a third-party competitor. Such a textbook example of anti-competitive behavior poses significant harm to consumers and to innovation on the internet”, Free Press wrote in its Dec. 13 letter.
Free Press had earlier filed a complaint with the FCC regarding Verizon Wireless’ restriction of third-party tethering applications, which enable consumers to connect mobile devices to the internet using their smartphones for free. Verizon Wireless charges customers a monthly fee for tethering service.
“Verizon Wireless must not be allowed to continue to engage in rampantly anti-competitive, anti-consumer, anti-innovation blocking of applications, including third-party tethering and mobile payment applications, in violation of its license obligations – and in violation of the spirit if not the letter of its legal obligations under the commission’s open internet rules”, Free Press concluded in its letter.