Verizon currently charges its users $20 per month -- on top of data plan prices -- for the ability to "tether," or use their phone as a wireless hotspot for other devices, such as tablets and laptops. , Verizon asked Google to block third-party tethering apps, which allow users to tether without paying Verizon's $20 fee.

This request -- that Google block third-party tethering apps on its Google Play store -- when it bid on, and won, a large chunk of mobile broadband spectrum in 700MHz auctions in 2008, Free Press argued. The FCC , noting that the "open device and application obligations were core conditions when Verizon purchased the C-block spectrum."

Verizon denied that it ever blocked third-party tethering apps in a statement released Tuesday.

"Verizon Wireless has always allowed its customers to use the lawful applications of their choice on its networks, and it did not block its customers from using third-party tethering applications," the company said.

As part of the agreement, Verizon will be notifying app stores that it no longer wants them to block third-party tethering apps.