The IT Nerd

AT&T and Verizon met in court yesterday over that lawsuit that AT&T filed because they are a bit ticked at Verizon’s “There’s a map for that” ad campaign. The issue at hand was that AT&T wanted those ads yanked off the air immediately.

That didn’t happen.

However the judge did set a date of December 16th for AT&T to try again. In the meantime, AT&T has now decided that a new ad starring Luke Wilson will solve their problems.

Oh for those who don’t know who Luke Wilson is, you might remember him from such movies as “Legally Blonde,” “Old School” and “Jackass Number Two.”

Yeah, I’m not impressed either.

In any case, it’s clear that they threw this together quickly and didn’t put a lot of time into it. Which means that the message is lost to the viewer because there’s nothing to engage the viewer. Meanwhile the Verizon ads deliver their point that AT&T’s 3G coverage sucks with the precision of a cruise missile because of the fact that their ads are designed from the ground up to engage the viewer. That’s what you get when you spend something more than 60 seconds to come up with an ad campaign.

My advice to AT&T? Give up now and spend the money that they’re tossing at the lawyers towards fixing their network so that it has better 3G coverage. Besides, by the time they’re back in court the damage from the Verizon ads will be done and AT&T will look like fools for fighting this.

This Verizon vs AT&T battle is getting ugly. Here’s what Verizon filed [Warning: PDF] in response to the AT&T lawsuit:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.

Ouch! And that’s just the introduction. If you read the rest of the document, you’ll see all sorts of bitch slaps in the document topped off by this:

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.

Geez. It makes you think that Verizon isn’t just trying to defend itself from this lawsuit. They’re trying to seriously wound AT&T by going for the throat.

I’m going to get the popcorn as this will get really interesting.

If you’re AT&T, you’ve been forced to listen to Verizon ads which parody the “there’s an app for that” iPhone ads with ads that say “there’s a map for that” such as this one which point out that your 3G coverage sucks. So what do you do? You respond to this in the time honored tradition of suing Verizon to force the ads off the air:

The lawsuit says Verizon’s ads suggest that coverage areas outside of fast AT&T 3G service, shown in maps in the ads in white, provide no service at all. In fact, most of the white areas are covered, but with somewhat slower wireless speeds, AT&T said.

And:

AT&T is seeking an emergency injunction to stop the ads. It also seeks unspecified damages, accusing Verizon of false advertising, and claims the ads harm AT&T’s ability to compete. AT&T also said Verizon’s ads are causing AT&T to lose “incalculable market share” and goodwill with customers.

Good luck with that AT&T. Oh. They’ve also come out with a press release to “set the record straight:”

AT&T’s wireless data coverage reaches 303 million people – or 97% of the U.S. population, where they live and work. Our data coverage consists of 3 different types of technology:

• 3G. 233 million people or 75% of the population are covered by AT&T’s 3G network, the nation’s fastest.
• EDGE. 301 million people or more than 96% of the population are covered by EDGE.
  • With both 3G and EDGE coverage, customers can access the Internet, send e-mail, surf the Web, stream music, download videos, send photos, text, talk and more. The only difference – with some data applications, 3G is faster than EDGE
• GPRS. Covers 303 million people, allowing you to talk, text, e-mail and access basic websites optimized for wireless.

Are you kidding? The best you can do is to highlight the fact that you have slower data access (via EDGE and GPRS) in the areas that you don’t have 3G? Isn’t that the whole point of the Verizon ads.

And then there’s this line:

With both 3G and EDGE coverage, customers can access the Internet, send e-mail, surf the Web, stream music, download videos, send photos, text, talk and more. The only difference – with some data applications, 3G is faster than EDGE

Yeah, 3G is faster than EDGE… BY SEVERAL ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE FOR ALL APPLICATIONS. Trying minimize that difference is like saying that a Honda Civic is competitive with a Audi R8. The R8 is will blow the doors off the Civic on a open road or on a track seeing as it has a top speed of almost 200 miles an hour and the Civic can’t come anywhere near that. So in the end they’re not competitive at all. Perhaps AT&T execs need to read the Wikipedia articles on EDGE and 3G before coming out with a dumb statement like the above.

Face it AT&T. Your 3G coverage does suck, and the truth hurts. iPhone users have been complaining for some time about crappy AT&T service. Often in 3G areas like big cities. Some have created protest videos while others go to the media to complain. That shows up in studies that show that people love the iPhone and hate AT&T. No wonder there are rumors that Apple wants to take away rights to the iPhone and take the iPhone to Verizon ironically.

So AT&T rather than file a lawsuit, how about fixing your network? You might win a few friends if you do that.