In its August 21 letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), AT&T has clarified that it did not play any role in Apple's rejection of the Google Voice app for the App Store. The AT&T letter, along with two separate communications from Apple and Google, was revealed by the FCC on Friday.

The AT&T letter, addressed to Ruth Milkman, chief of FCC's wireless telecommunications bureau, said that it was "not asked about the matter by Apple at any time, nor did it offer any view one way or the other. More broadly, AT&T does not own, operate or control the Apple App Store and is not typically consulted regarding the approval or rejection of applications for the App Store."

Nonetheless, AT&T defended the curbing of the VoIP - voice-over-Internet protocol - service for safeguarding the revenue required to counterbalance the iPhone's subsidized cost.

Meanwhile, Apple too has elucidated its stance on the contentious issue, informing FCC that, contrary to the reports, the iPhone application that Google submitted has not been rejected; and that it was still being "studied" by the company, chiefly because of privacy concerns.

Apple further said that it had acted "alone," without any consultation with partner AT&T; noting that the two companies do not have any contractual conditions or non- contractual understandings, requiring Apple to involve AT&T in its decision-making process.