Consumer group Free Press on Monday filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Verizon Wireless for allegedly requesting that Google block tethering apps in the Android Market. Verizon has denied any wrongdoing.

Consumer group Free Press on Monday filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Verizon Wireless for allegedly requesting that Google block tethering apps in the Android Market. Verizon has denied any wrongdoing.

According to Free Press, blocking such apps would violate the terms and conditions of Verizon's FCC license for its LTE network. In , Verizon must not "deny, limit, or restrict" the ability of customers to use apps or devices of their choosing.

"Users pay through the nose for Verizon's LTE service, and having done so, they should be able to use their connections as they see fit," Free Press policy counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement. "Instead, Verizon's approach is to sell you broadband but then put up roadblocks to control your use of it."

Verizon denied blocking the apps. "Google manages the apps available in its Android Market. Verizon Wireless does not block applications available to its customers through the Android Market," a spokesman said in a statement.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the search giant told Fierce Wireless in March that it was making an app called Wireless Tether unavailable for download at the request of wireless carriers.

News about carriers possibly blocking tethering apps made the rounds in late April after DroidLife found that it could not access tethering apps in the Android Market from its devicesAT&T and Verizon. The blog was able to locate the apps in the browser-based version of the market, however. As DroidLife pointed out, "we've known for some time now that carriers were going to start cracking down on tethering, [so] it looks like your days of 'stealing data' are about to come to an end."

Why is Verizon being singled out? Free Press pointed to the spectrum Verizon purchased in the C Block, which carries specific openness conditions. AT&T also purchased 700 MHz spectrum, but not in the C Block.

"When other carriers disable access to tethering applications, it's an anti-consumer, anti-innovation policy, but it's not against the commission's rules. When Verizon does it, it's anti-consumer, anti-innovation, and a violation of the commission's rules," a Free Press spokeswoman said.

Verizon and AT&T provide tethering options for wireless users, usually about $20 more per month on top of their voice and data plan. In March, that it was contacting a small number of its smartphone users and ordering them to stop tethering their phones without paying for AT&T's tethering service.

"We are sending emails, letter and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren't on the required tethering plan. Our goal is fairness for all of our customers," an AT&T spokesman said at the time.

A May report from Android Police said Verizon was doing the same thing, but as the blog points out, Verizon's terms explicity ban the practice. "Customers who do not have dedicated Mobile Broadband devices cannot tether other devices to laptops or personal computers for use as wireless modems unless they subscribe to Mobile Broadband Connect," the terms read.