AT&T Sues Verizon Over Ads

You know those “There’s a map for that” ads? It looks as though AT&T is pretty pissed over them and has filed suit against Verizon. Heh, I wonder if there is an app for that.

All that said, it's hard to deny that Verizon's ads made a perfectly valid point: using an iPhone on AT&T's network in New York or San Francisco is an exercise in frustration, regardless of whether you have 2G or 3G, and we've had zero problems on Verizon. Let's just hope AT&T is working as hard to fight these ads with its actual service as it is with its lawyers.

When I read this on Engadget earlier today, I actually laughed at AT&T.

Here's the thing: AT&T counterattacked saying that the map doesn't include their 2G coverage which is larger than their 3G coverage. Something their customers have access to if they get outside of 3G covered areas.

Um... yoo-hoo, AT&T, this isn't about 2G coverage in these ads, but 3G COVERAGE.

*facepalm*

I have no actual experience with AT&T since I've been with Verizon for the last decade, but my parents recently just made a cross country trip taking my sister to college from California to UNC in North Carolina. They swung all over and made a month long road trip out of it and neither my parents or sister had any expereince with drop calls or slow 3g speeds.

All I know is that my Verizon based smart phones pale in comparison with AT&T's speeds on their phones, both the BB's and the iPhones, enough so that I just switched to AT&T. Plus I can now talk and browse on my phone at my place, something that I couldn't do with Verizon.

Originally Posted by Climber

I have no actual experience with AT&T since I've been with Verizon for the last decade, but my parents recently just made a cross country trip taking my sister to college from California to UNC in North Carolina. They swung all over and made a month long road trip out of it and neither my parents or sister had any expereince with drop calls or slow 3g speeds.

All I know is that my Verizon based smart phones pale in comparison with AT&T's speeds on their phones, both the BB's and the iPhones, enough so that I just switched to AT&T. Plus I can now talk and browse on my phone at my place, something that I couldn't do with Verizon.

I guess I should point out that my no actual experience with AT&T is limited to the last 2 days of being on their network here in town and not all over the place.

I love how all the telcom companies are spinning the maps as a great new feature when they were forced to make them available by the FCC. AT&T, Vorizon and, all the rest. would love to keep their consumers good little mushrooms.

I thought those ads were kind of funny. AT&T simply needs to work on their 3g coverage and they get pissed when someone points that out, lol.

After using AT&T on my business Blackjack for the past four years, I thought that map accurately reflected their total coverage. I'm constantly getting dropped to Edge and often lose connection altogether. I thought it was the phone until I spent two weeks with an iPhone and had the exact same experience.

I'm hoping that this marketing is more than hype because I'll be pissed if I get that kind of crap with my Droid and its ridiculously expensive plan.

AT&T where I live has much better coverage than Verizon. However, it is mainly 2G once you leave the major areas. Being in the industry (I worked for BMI/Cingular/AT&T for 9 years before jumping ship), I admit I had a nice chuckle at the ad. It is quite clear that they are referencing 3G coverage. Surely, most people are smart enough to realize that.

well the updates shed a slightly better light on ATT. but still isn't stopping me from looking hard at Verizon for a new carrier.

Update: So this seems like a very narrow lawsuit, actually. As we've been told, AT&T thinks Verizon is trying to fool viewers into thinking that they can't use any AT&T phone services outside of 3G coverage areas by showing two essentially different maps. Since Verizon's entire network is 3G, the gaps in the red map are actual service gaps -- but Verizon doesn't show that the gaps on the AT&T map might be covered by AT&T's huge 2G network. We can see how that could be misleading, but at some point you've got to compare apples to apples, and AT&T even says it has "no quarrel with Verizon advertising its larger 3G network" in its complaint, so we'll see how the court reacts.

Update 2: Interestingly, Verizon's already changed the ads once at AT&T's behest, editing them to remove the phrase "out of touch" and adding a "Voice and data services available outside of 3G areas" small print disclaimer at the end. Apparently that wasn't enough for AT&T, which says the ads still confuse non-technical viewers into thinking AT&T provides no service at all outside of its 3G coverage.

Update 3: Okay, we've read everything -- there's really not much more to this suit than the arguments over the maps. We're thinking Verizon could have easily dealt with this by just using dark blue and light blue on the AT&T map to differentiate between 3G and 2G coverage, but at this point we don't think Ma Bell is all that interested in anything except getting these ads off the air. All that said, it's hard to deny that Verizon's ads made a perfectly valid point: using an iPhone on AT&T's network in New York or San Francisco is an exercise in frustration, regardless of whether you have 2G or 3G, and we've had zero problems on Verizon. Let's just hope AT&T is working as hard to fight these ads with its actual service as it is with its lawyers.

I like Verizons ad, Lots of Humor there, Is there a map for that? Maybe, LOL. AT&T is just pissed that Verizon pointed out AT&Ts weak spot(Achilles heel) and that Verizon beat AT&T to It, Chomp, Chomp.

I applaud Verizon for the ad's. The exact way their commercial depicted the AT&T "user" is how I generally felt while a subscriber. Even in Chicago, I literally sat 6 feet away from someone who had service while I had none (ok, I had "more bars" but I had no connectivity)

I am a happy Sprint user with no dropped calls or unavailable EVDO in the same areas I'd lose AT&T 3G. Again, bravo to Verizon.

And yes, the ad does clearly state 3G coverage. This is just more whining done on the part of AT&T a la Google.

Originally Posted by BadAim

AT&T where I live has much better coverage than Verizon. However, it is mainly 2G once you leave the major areas. Being in the industry (I worked for BMI/Cingular/AT&T for 9 years before jumping ship), I admit I had a nice chuckle at the ad. It is quite clear that they are referencing 3G coverage. Surely, most people are smart enough to realize that.

That is probably why AT&T filed a lawsuit against Verizon. Most people are not "smart enough" to realize that and AT&T knows that, lol.

I'm in urban Wilmington, DE, and have the 2.5g iPhone. In this city, Edge is frakkin ridiculous. During the day it takes 30 secs to just pull down a 4k text email. Voicemails take 10-30 mins to transmit to the phone. Go out to the burbs, and it's fine. The people on 3G are just as bad, unless it's like 4AM on a Monday night.

I'm glad verizon ran those ad's, hopefully it will light a fire under ATT's ass and get them to extend their coverage.

I've been very fortunate to work in an area with above average service, since that's where I use it the most, but at home it's constantly dropping to edge and/or switching over to rogers wireless (Canadian company). It's pretty much unusable... drive less than a mile north and the signal is fine

Why do big companies sue when they are told the facts?

I don't normally pay attention to connection quality, but it has been 3G in most areas I have been (Atlanta, Chico, San Clemente). I also really do not understand the animosity against AT&T. Verizon is the smaller company, but there service is also more expensive. Never had any real call issues with AT&T so don't know why anyone would pay more.

Yes, they are a huge bumbling corporation, but alot of that has to deal with the bureaucracy of any large corporations.

even in the UK i norm tell every one switch there phones to GSM/2G mode (iPhone slide off 3g to get more bat life and fix loss call problems)

as most do not even Use internet or video calling is pointless as no one offers VIdeo calling plans apart from 3 and thats limited to 20 mins per month and to 3 to 3 customers only, its best to use 2g only as that norm always work (does not affect the voice quality any way as a lot of phones move to GSM/2g when in call my HTC touch HD does if i have it set to auto if its UMTS it stays on 3g)

as Phone makers who program the Slide from 3g/2g wish they would program the cut off for 3g signal to 20% before Slide over to 2g/edge, signal should Slide over to 3G at 30% signal level this would fix most problems with missing calls/dropping calls or not been able to make calls,

currently most phones have to get below 10-20% before it moves to 2g but at that point its to late there is no signal so some phones say they have 3g coverage when they do not (cant make call or receive call or it drops the call or use internet) my T-mobile Google G1 phone and my Orange HTC both have the same problem if i have them on 3g some times i get diverted calls if the phone cant ring it diverts to my other phone, when you have HSDPA turned on it can make 20% miss calls happen or more (was getting loads of diverts with it on) but lucky you can turn off HSDPA on windows phones due to it been unreliable, i guess the Iphone is can be very bad as it does support HSDPA but no option to use 3g only)

I have nothing against ATT, but this is silly. I can see it now...

Verizon lawyer: "ATT, are you saying that the maps are not accurate?"
ATT: "Well... no.. they are accurate."
Verizon lawyer: "So the map showing your 3G coverage is accurate."
ATT: "Err.. um... yes"
Verizon lawyer: "And the map showing our 3G coverage is accurate."
ATT: "Well.. yes"
Verizon lawyer: "Let the record show that ATT confirms that their coverage is inferior"
ATT: "The issue at hand is that consumers are confused by the maps."
Verizon lawyer: "Mr. ATT, can you read the large text on the screen"
ATT:"5 times more 3G coverage"
Judge: "Case dismissed!"

I haven't had any problems with 3G coverage in dallas. Yet another reason to not live in CA or NY.

I've had AT&T for way too long and I an assure everyone that they are most definitely serious about focusing on this lawsuit as a priority over working on their crummy 3G coverage.

I'm probably going to bounce over to Verizon or Sprint soon. Droids and Pres are looking super nice from where I am sitting.