
AT&T is taking Verizon to court. And even if you haven't heard why, there's a good chance you can suspect the impetus behind the suit filed.
If you've seen Verizon's "There's a Map for That" commercials, you've probably noticed that AT&T's represented coverage area looks nothing like the coverage area AT&T says it provides. In fact, the commercial makes AT&T's coverage look so bad, that some commentators in the blogosphere saw this lawsuit coming probably before Verizon did.
From Apple Insider:
The "Map" advertisement displays two competing 3G coverage maps, in which the Verizon coverage area is clearly more widespread than AT&T's coverage area. The suit contains an AT&T commissioned survey of the ads which found that 53 percent of those asked interpreted the non-colored areas of the maps to be total gaps in coverage.
Verizon has released a series of aggressive ads targeted toward AT&T and the iPhone specifically in conjunction with the release of Motorola's Droid phone on the Verizon network. The Droid is scheduled to be released November 6th, and is the first phone to carry Android version 2.0 along with a beta of Google Navigator. Verizon's "iDon't" ad directly compared the Droid to the iPhone, claiming that the Droid has superior features.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says "Verizon knows we're the leader in smartphones. This whole campaign is a response to that."
The suit seeks a temporary restraining order and a injunction to stop Verizon from "disseminating misleading coverage maps" of AT&T's areas of cellular and data coverage. AT&T is also seeking damages in the suit.



Reply



