Last week Apple or AT&T rejected the official Google Voice app, and banned/removed other unofficial Google Voice apps in the App Store. The FCC decided to investigate, and they sent letters to Apple, AT&T, and Google to find out more info. You can see all the letters at TechCrunch.

AT&T responded to this by issuing the following statement:

“AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.”

AT&T is not revealing much in this statement. They’re just saying that they don’t manage or approve applications, but of course we knew that too. Apple manages and approves all applications in the App Store. What we don’t know is whether AT&T had influenced Apple or been able to get them to remove all the Google Voice Apps.

According to Sean Kovacs, an Apple support representative Raymond C claims that GV Mobile was removed from the App Store at the request of AT&T. This has not been confirmed, but you can see a screenshot of the chat below.

Raymond C said the following:

Yea unfortunately at the request of AT&T GV was removed from the App store. I am truly sorry for the inconvenience and frustration on this unfortunate removal of a great application.

Maybe the FCC’s involvement may mean that Google Voice apps will be back, but don’t count on it. On the bright side, you can still jailbreak and download GV Mobile from Cydia, and Google has said that they will be working on a mobile site version of Google Voice too. Google Voice will continue for the iPhone!

Earlier this week Apple rejected the official Google voice app and removed all other previously approved Google Voice Apps from the App Store leaving many developers frustrated. Many developers invested a lot of time and effort in building their apps, and it was a slap in their faces to have their apps removed.

It has not been confirmed whether Apple or AT&T were responsible for the removal of Google Voice apps. Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to contact Apple, AT&T, and Google to find out the whole deal behind this. They want to know why Apple rejected the Google Voice App, which third-party applications were rejected, the contact information for each developer’s app that was rejected, who was responsible for the removal or rejections of the apps, whether AT&T has a role in approval of the apps, a list of iPhone applications or categories of applications that were rejected and for what purposes, and the standards for considering and approving applications.

Tech Crunch has posted the letter that was sent to Apple, AT&T, and Yahoo. It would be interesting to see Apple’s responses to these questions, but unfortunately we won’t ever be seeing them. I do hope this makes Apple or AT&T think twice before rejecting any app next time. A Google spokesperson told Tech Crunch the following:

“Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users, for example by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers. We will supply the information that the Commission has requested.”

I would like to see Google release their Google Voice app to jailbroken iPhones or iPod Touches on Cydia, but that will never happen. We can only dream of this!

[via CNNMoney.com]