AT&T loses first court battle against Verizon, but says the war isn’t over

AT&T Wireless’ war against Verizon was dealt a blow when a judge denied the company’s request for a restraining order barring Verizon from airing their “There’s a Map for That” ads that highlight AT&T’s truly pathetic 3G coverage. AT&T is furious over the new ad campaign, insisting it is misleading to consumers, and vows to continue the fight. Verizon responded in a legal filing:

“This motion is a blatant effort to ask the Court to do what the marketplace will not do: shield AT&T from truthful comparative advertisements that Verizon has a right to air and that consumers have a right to see.”

One wonders if AT&T would be better off spending money on increasing its 3G coverage than on this silly lawsuit. It’s inexcusable that a major carrier offers such lame 3G coverage when fellow carriers like Sprint are already offering 4G coverage. Its clear AT&T made the mistake of resting its laurels on the iPhone and for whatever reason, couldn’t be bothered to invest in its own infrastructure. This has resulted in a legion of angry iPhone users, who lament having a cutting edge cell phone with little high speed coverage, and angry non iPhone coverage who are unhappy at the burden the iPhone users have placed on the network.

GSM may be the more popular technology, but here in the U.S., given the troubles both T-Mobile and AT&T are having, CDMA carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint seem to be better choices. Now if only Sprint could find a competent advertising team…

Read [PCWorld]