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Friday, March 29, 2024

Verizon and AT&T 3G advertising battle

Verizon has been running a series of ads comparing the broadness of its 3G coverage to that of AT&T. There are several different variations of the ad running, but they all feature a map of the United States liberally splashed with red (representing Verizon’s 3G coverage) juxtaposed against a map with only a few sparse dots of blue (representing AT&T’s 3G coverage). Here’s one of the ads:

It’s important to note that Verizon is making claims about its 3G coverage—basically, referring to its coverage when handling services that involve transfers of large amounts of data, like streaming video. “3G coverage,” it’s important to note, does not refer to coverage of general “do I have bars here?” cell phone service.

To be fair, the maps Verizon uses in the ads are clearly marked “3G Coverage,” and a little common sense would dictate that these maps don’t refer to general service coverage—Verizon wouldn’t seriously try to make the claim that the entirety of Montana, Wyoming, and both Dakotas simply don’t have wireless AT&T coverage.

That, however, didn’t stop AT&T from arguing that these ads are deceptive. The company sued Verizon in November, saying that Verizon was trying to trick consumers into thinking that the empty white spaces on the map represented places where no AT&T wireless service was available. (The lawsuit was eventually dropped the next month.)

It was a ridiculous lawsuit, but it’s at least somewhat understandable why they filed it: To consumers who don’t know what “3G” is, it’s easy to mentally ignore it as some fancy tech term and just take in the stark comparison of one full map against one nearly empty map. And it’s not too cynical to think that Verizon is targeting not just smartphone users but low-information consumers on the side with these ads.

But what isn’t understandable is AT&T’s surprisingly lame response to these ads:

Starring Luke Wilson for seemingly no other reason than to make people start conversations with their friends over why they should trust Luke Wilson when making cell phone decisions, they provide a wholly lacking response to Verizon.

Verizon’s claim, after all, is simple: It has broader 3G coverage than AT&T. That’s it.

When AT&T insists that its wireless coverage covers 97 percent of people, I think, well, that’s great—but they were talking about 3G, and I’m sure Verizon has just as good wireless coverage, too. But now I’m suspicious as to why you’re trying to change the subject.

When AT&T insists that Verizon’s story “falls apart” because AT&T, and not Verizon, lets you talk on the phone while you surf the web, I think that AT&T must’ve read the wrong story because Verizon’s claim was broader coverage—no more, no less.

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And when AT&T says it has the most popular smartphones and the nation’s fastest 3G network, I wonder how useful that can really be if your 3G coverage is as tiny as Verizon is claiming—which, I notice, you haven’t rebutted at all.

That’s why AT&T’s response is completely, incredibly inadequate: By not addressing the point Verizon is raising, it’s ceding the point. And “broadest 3G coverage”—five times broader, if Verizon is to be believed—feels like a much more important consideration than “cooler phones” or “faster service.” Cool phones or faster service don’t matter much if you don’t actually have 3G coverage.

It’d be like if I owned a hamburger shop, and my competitor made the claim that my hamburgers will kill anybody who eats them. It wouldn’t inspire too much confidence in my death burgers if I my rebuttal was, “They’re lying, my hamburgers are totally delicious!”

AT&T’s attempt at a sleight-of-hand trick—first with its “rebuttal” to Verizon’s 3G claims by talking about general wireless coverage, then with its “yeah, our coverage sucks, but if you do get coverage, it’s awesome” line of attack—makes them look more than a little dishonest.

Which, sadly for AT&T, is pretty ironic, considering its response campaign is predicated on “set[ting] the record straight.” They even have a microsite, TruthAbout3G.com, which features this unfortunate screenshot:

“3G not available in all areas”? Yeah, that’s exactly the problem, AT&T. Sheesh.

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