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Verizon And AT&T To Meet In Court Today Over 3G Coverage Ads

A federal court will hear from both Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) today as to whether Verizon should be able to continue running its now-infamous TV commercials that claim to have five times more 3G coverage than AT&T, reports USA Today.

Based on Verizon’s statement it sent to the court earlier this week, it believes it will prevail. It argues: “AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.” And actually, AT&T isn’t contesting the accuracy of Verizon’s claim, but says the ads are misleading. AT&T wants the court to force Verizon to stop running the five ads. The suit will be heard in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

USA Today quoted experts today saying that all of the wireless carriers’ have somewhat misleading ads. AT&T’s current claim is that it has the “Nation’s Fastest 3G Network,” which implies that it is national, even though it is not. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. We think our ads are “straightforward and honest,” he says. Tony Melone, Verizon’s CTO, says it’s not so much whether AT&T has coverage or not—capacity is the issue. “AT&T “does not have enough 3G capacity ... to handle demand,” he said.

Nov 18, 2009 11:45 AM ET

AT&T Bars Photo: AT&T

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Posted In: Companies, AT&T, Verizon

  • apsis

    Dont you guys get it? They are ALL lying and misleading - and now with the “theres no such thing as bad press” they are reaping double benefits from their lies-hence neither wants to press the issue in court. And not one of us lowly cattle has the gumption or the funds to stad up to them in a legal batte to call their sorry you know whats on the carpet….

  • Al

    To Mobility Geek: you are so correct Verizons ads are very misleading!!!!!

  • Mobility Geek

    I'm a mobility network expert. Do you know what technologies are used in Verizon? 2G: CDMA, 3G: CDMA2000. What's the difference between CDMA and CDMA2000? In terms of voice network: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Only the data network has migrated to EVDO but it won't have such massive coverage as on the map. So you can say those Red Dots on the Verizon map are all 3G or ... all 2G. True? Yes. Misleading? Definitely!

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