A federal court [Wednesday] will consider the fate of a Verizon ad campaign that features side-by-side wireless coverage maps showing it has five times more 3G coverage than AT&T  .
AT&T isn't contesting the accuracy of Verizon's claim, but says the ads are misleading. Verizon, in its legal response, says AT&T is suing because the "ads are true, and the truth hurts." AT&T wants the court, which will hear arguments today, to force Verizon to pull the five ads. Three are holiday themed.
Regardless of the outcome, legal experts say the lawsuit has put a spotlight on an even bigger problem for wireless consumers: the reliability of ad claims in general. Trying to win customers, carriers are increasingly bending the truth or omitting facts in ad campaigns, says Joel Kelsey, a lawyer with Consumers Union. All carriers do it, he says.
Consider AT&T's current advertising claim: "Nation's Fastest 3G Network," which it has spent billions promoting to people who use advanced devices such as the Apple iPhone, which runs exclusively on AT&T. To hear the claim, Kelsey says, "You'd think they offered 3G from the foothills of Kentucky to the mountain tops of Alaska."
The reality: AT&T doesn't offer 3G in parts of the West, South and most of the Midwest. And where it is offered, if the local 3G network is loaded, you'll default to slower "2G" or "Edge" networks.
The ads don't get deep into detail on network issues because AT&T wants to make it easy for customers to understand, says AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. We think our ads are "straightforward and honest," he says.
Tony Melone, Verizon chief technical officer, says network capacity is the real issue. AT&T "does not have enough 3G capacity ... to handle demand."
Siegel says AT&T "does not have a capacity issue. We think we're doing a great job."
U.S. District Court in Atlanta will decide the question of when an ad segues from merely being "simple" to being misleading. AT&T's main beef is with the white areas of Verizon's coverage maps, which denote no 3G coverage. AT&T's map is awash in white; Verizon's has almost none. AT&T, in its lawsuit, says consumers may think the white space means AT&T offers no coverage at all in those areas.
"If the ads are judged to be truthful but not misleading, even though they're damaging to AT&T's business, well, that's just competition," says Tom Zellerbach, a partner with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. But Verizon has a hurdle, too. In the maps, Verizon notes that voice and data service are available in the white areas. The court "could question whether that disclaimer is conspicuous enough," he says.
© 2010 USA TODAY under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
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