Phone Wars

AT&T goes after Verizon in Federal Court, claiming that Verizon’s current ad campaign compares Verizon’s entire network with AT&T’s 3G network only.

I’ve actually seen the advertisement in question, though as a happy customer of someone else, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, but, as I recall, the map comparison was pretty devastating to AT&T. An excerpt from the Reuters story:

According to the lawsuit which AT&T filed in Atlanta federal court, a recently launched ad campaign shows maps with white spaces that mislead consumers into thinking AT&T has no network coverage outside of areas where it offers high-speed mobile services, known as third-generation or 3G.

But AT&T argued that its customers can “fully use their wireless devices outside of a ‘3G’ coverage area and undisputedly have coverage in areas depicted by white or blank spaces on the maps used in Verizon’s advertisements.”

Bloomberg goes into a little more detail than Reuters on differences between voice and data plans.

(On a personal note: My house is now on the market, I’m no longer surrounded by paint and spackle cans, and I’m back amongst the living.)