Verizon Responds to AT&T ‘Map’ Ads Lawsuit: ‘Truth Hurts’

Ed Sutherland ()

Photo: bloomsberries/flickr)

Photo: bloomsberries/flickr)

Verizon Wireless has shot back in court at rival AT&T’s attempt to stop it’s ‘There’s A Map For That’ ad campaign. In court documents, Verizon lawyers wrote their company’s ads are true “and the truth hurts.”

“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,” the New York-based company responded. The language was sure to inspire a few headlines and continue the battle between the two carriers.

Verizon, in a series of advertisments, has questioned coverage of AT&T’s 3G network and whether the carrier best serves iPhone customers. AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple’s popular handset. Following the ‘Map’ commercials, Verizon launched the Droid, a handset using Android 2.0 built by Motorola and aimed at the iPhone. Recently, Verizon aired new ads picturing the iPhone on the ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ due to AT&T coverage.

In response, AT&T told a court the ad “falsely communicates that the iPhone is a broken device because it cannot browse the Web or download applications when outside of AT&T’s depicted coverage area.”

In another quote from the latest legal memo submitted to the court, Verizon charges AT&T and its smartphone customers have suffered due to lack of 3G infrastructure.

“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,” Verizon lawyers wrote.

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[Via Verizon Memo (PDF), Engadget, AppleInsider and iClarified]

4 comments »

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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  • http://cultofmac.com Lonnie Lazar

    as if browsing the web and downloading applications over 3G represents some sort of Holy Grail…

  • Ratnok

    @lonnie,

    Umm, well, in the world of smartphones, actually it does.

  • Charli

    the thing that is interesting is that in fact the ads might not be telling the truth. at least not to the degree that Verizon claims. there are reports that Verizon’s 3g is in fact closer in speeds to ATT’s Edge, with ATT’s 3g being much faster.

    if this is true, then that’s what ATT needs to use as the attack. NOT a lawsuit that just makes them sound bitter. Smart phone users tend to be SMART phone users. so play to that intelligence or air of intelligence and lay the facts out there. show them what Verizon’s 3g really means. and show them that ATT’s offering at the same (or closest to) level is Edge. and show the folks that map.

    that’s the hit that would (if true) leave a bruise or two.

  • rocko

    This map shows 3g service. Verizon is lightyears ahead of ATT. Sprints’ coverage is major metro, but they made a deal to roam on Verizon, which means: better coverage than ATT!!!

    ATT are building new cell towers from scartch, which requires land lease/purchase, construction, time… Verizon will simply upgrade existing cell towers, which leaves verizon and Sprint the front-runners in cell coverage!!

    http://www.cellularmaps.com/3g_compare.shtml