DailyTech - AT&T and Verizon Drop Lawsuits, But Vow to Continue Attack Commercials

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Gadgets AT&T and Verizon Drop Lawsuits, But Vow to Continue Attack Commercials
Jason Mick (Blog) - December 2, 2009 1:58 PM

29 comment(s) - last by DLeRium.. on Dec 7 at 3:06 PM

AT&T and Verizon have dropped their lawsuits against each other, leaving Verizon free to continue to mock AT&T's geographic coverage in its commercials.

AT&T is trying to fire back with its new commercials starring Luke Wilson.

There's no love gained between the pair, but they agree to end their pointless court battle

Verizon really got under AT&T's skin when it aired the first of its "There's a map for that" commercials blasting the company's 3G coverage. AT&T took Verizon to court, suing them for deceiving its customers. AT&T argued that while its geographic 3G coverage was admittedly lacking compared to its competitor, it still provided coverage for most Americans by population.

Now it appears the court fracas between Verizon and AT&T has finally been laid to rest. Following the denial of its request for summary judgment, AT&T has agreed to drop its suit and Verizon has, in turn, agreed to drop its countersuit.

AT&T writes, "Verizon and AT&T have dismissed the litigation between them in Georgia and New York."

According to the legal text provided:

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED by and between Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless ("Verizon Wireless") and Defendant/Counterclaim Plaintiff AT&T Mobility LLC ("AT&T") that pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: (a) Verizon Wireless's claims against AT&T in the above- captioned action are hereby dismissed without prejudice, and (b) AT&T's counterclaims against Verizon Wireless in the above-captioned action are hereby dismissed without prejudice.

AT&T and Verizon, though, are hardly kissing and making up. Verizon continues to step up its ads mocking AT&T's efforts. And AT&T is trying to counter with a series of commercials starring B-list actor Luke Wilson. It appears, however that this round has been won by Verizon -- AT&T's brand reputation has been slipping downward according to market research firm Brand Index, and a recent Consumer Reports study showed AT&T last in customer satisfaction (Verizon came in first).

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RE: WOW

By DLeRium on 12/7/2009 3:06:32 PM , Rating: 2

You know, when you mention MAJORITY of the country, you're incorrect. Most of you who even post here will never venture outside those 3G zones in most of your lives. Minus those weekends you go camping in the middle of nowhere. We took roadtrips and had our iPhone plugged in playing a streaming station that requires a 3G connection. You get 3G in MANY places.

AT&T's 3G network is capable of faster speeds than Verizon. It's 3.6mbps in most places and 7.2mbps in select places. The problem is AT&T's network is stretched thin and cannot attain the full speeds its supposed to get.

You know how Comcast oversells and stuff? Just imagine that. Imagine if Comcast did give everyone 12/2 at the minimum but can't even reach 6mbps speeds. Fortunately my experiences w/ Comcast have been good and I can easily get speeds above the rated ones. But this is the case with AT&T. They're overselling. Their backbone can't handle that much data. Blame it on the iPhone or whatever, but Europe and Asia have been mainstream 3G for ages. People use way better phones, and they don't just have the iPhone sucking up data.

Some argue that Verizon would struggle too if it had the iPhone instead. Well, then it's something with American carriers where they can't get their internet backbones to be strong enough.

Here's my word of advice: Stop spending millions on idiotic carrier subsidies. The Qualcomm fiasco has really screwed America over. We're using idiotic CDMA and stupid 850 frequencies. Phone manufacturers make dumbed down special phones for America with stupid names like the Fuze, enV, Shine, etc whereas the mainstream phones in the rest of the world can't even make it over. If you showed the rest of the world what phones AT&T and Verizon get they would laugh their asses off. Sure there's a few good ones. HTC's Touch Pro2, Touch Diamond, iPhone... Droid Uhh yeah. Ends there. In fact it seems like the only 2 smartphones people here know about is the iPhone and Droid. They don't even market the Samsung Omnia II @ Verizon stores... or other great phones. X1? 5800? N97? Ugh. Stop spending so much on phone subsidies and work on your DAMN NETWORKS. While AT&T is in a bigger need to upgrade, Verizon needs to also because after all these years of crippled phones, it's obvious your data use is very limited. Oh and with your crappy phone selection (pre Droid), obviously not much data is going through your network. Great way to keep your speeds up huh

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