An activist group asked federal regulators Monday to require Verizon to allow its Android customers to use their 4G smart phones as modems for other devices, citing openness rules the carrier agreed to when it bought the spectrum in 2008.

FreePress, an online rights group that supports net neutrality, argues that the nation's largest wireless carrier asked Google to remove so-called tethering apps from the Android Market – because Verizon wants to charge $20 a month for subscribers to use their phone as an ad hoc modem.

FreePress says that request violates the openness rules that the FCC attached to the so-called C Block spectrum that Verizon bought at auction in 2008. Those rules require that Verizon allow users to use the devices, services and apps of their choice, without interference from the carrier.

While Google long championed net neutrality rules, the search giant has consistently bowed to carrier's requests to remove tethering apps from the Android Market. Users who "root" their phones can install such apps on their own, but rooting phones invalidates the warranty. Carriers are also starting to investigate users' mobile traffic to spot and cut off those who use tethering apps without paying a premium.

The complaint is the first test of the unprecedented openness rules the FCC imposed on mobile phone spectrum in 2008, largely thanks to the lobbying of Google, which was trying to counter the power of telecoms and Apple. Since then Google has partnered closely with its former adversaries and has remained strangely silent on the openness rules it gambled $4.6 billion on.

If the FCC does investigate and prohibit the blocking of applications in online markets not directly controlled by the carrier, it will throw significant doubt onto the still open question of whether Verizon can ever sell an iPhone that works on its 4G network.

"In Verizon’s case, limiting access to tethering applications is not just a bad business practice and a bad policy choice; it also deliberately flouts the openness conditions imposed on Verizon’s LTE spectrum," the complaint reads. "When Verizon purchased the spectrum licenses associated with its LTE network, it agreed that it would not 'deny, limit, or restrict' the ability of its users to access the applications and devices of their choosing."

Verizon denies controls the Android Market, or that it is violating the openness rules, according to a statement from spokeswoman Debi Lewis.

Verizon Wireless doesn’t block applications in the Android Market; Google manages its market (as we manage V CAST Apps, and other app store providers manage their stores). Developers must adhere to their agreements with the app store providers and there are ways to report and point out non-compliance – for example apps that are essentially network work-arounds. Free Press filed this complaint with the FCC without contacting us to discuss the facts about the issue, as the FCC rules for formal complaints require. Free Press appears to be more interested garnering attention than finding out the facts. Verizon Wireless stands by its compliance with the FCC’s C-Block rules. Over the past few years, Verizon Wireless has paved the way for third parties to bring devices and applications to our 4G LTE network under the C-block rules through our Open Development and other programs, and we will continue to do so.

In December 2010, the FCC moved to impose net neutrality rules on all the mobile spectrum it has leased to telecoms, but the rules are not yet in force and are weaker than those it imposed on the so-called C-Block.

Verizon attempted to block the C-Block rules in court, but ultimately, pledged to abide by them and $4.75 billion to acquire the rights to the very valuable C-Block frequencies that travel far and penetrate walls well. Verizon also filed suit against the new net neutrality rules, but a federal judge said the company had to wait until the rules go into effect.

Verizon, which just got the iPhone earlier this year, only uses the 4G spectrum for non-Apple devices, such as the Android-powered Thunderbolt, which has wickedly fast 4G speeds. However, as of just a few weeks ago, Verizon's 4G customers using Android devices could no longer see nor download tethering applications in the Android market, though neither Google nor Verizon explained why that happened.

The FCC does not generally announce whether it opens an investigations following a complaint.

Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Verizon-powered Android phone. Eliu500

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