Early last month, Verizon began
assaulting AT&T with new commercials which were an
interesting twist on the AT&T-backed iPhone "There's a app
for that" commercials. Verizon turned the ads around to point
out all of the holes in AT&T's 3G coverage and numerous dropped
calls that have been reported with the service.
The Verizon commercials came right on
the heels of reports that a 30
percent dropped call rate in New York City for the iPhone was
considered "normal".
It was only a matter of time, but it
appears that AT&T has had enough of Verizon's commercials which
mock its 3G coverage in the United States. According
to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T is going after
Verizon with a lawsuit.
AT&T noted the following according
to Engadget:
In essence, we
believe the ads mislead consumers into believing that AT&T
doesn't offer ANY wireless service in the vast majority of the
country. In fact, AT&T's wireless network blankets the US,
reaching approximately 296M people. Additionally, our 3G service is
available in over 9,600 cities and towns. Verizon's misleading
advertising tactics appear to be a response to AT&T's strong
leadership in smartphones. We have twice the number of smartphone
customers... and we've beaten them two quarters in a row on net
post-paid subscribers. We also had lower churn -- a sign that
customers are quite happy with the service they receive.
According to the WSJ, AT&T
had complained to Verizon about the appearance of a lack of coverage
in large parts of the U.S. in the ads, but the changes Verizon made
to its spots weren't enough for AT&T, hence the lawsuit.
For its part in the matter, Verizon
spokesman Jim Gerace responded, “Our ads clearly explain that
non-3G coverage is available elsewhere. I think it's interesting that
AT&T's chose to focus on the white areas and not the blues area
of their map. We think it calls into question their own fastest 3G
claim as the map clearly shows where 3G doesn't exist."
