Verizon versus AT&T

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen the dualing ads between Verizon and AT&T regarding their respective coverage maps. I would compare it to two high school boys fighting over the same girl. Here are the facts to bring you up to speed. Just in case you missed it…

“It all started with Verizon’s iDon’t campaign. The ad promoted Verizon’s new Droid smartphone from Motorola (NYSE: MOT) by comparing features the Droid had and Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone lacked. While most of the claims from the commercial were technically true, several were nit-picky differences that didn’t truly offer points of distinction between the Droid and iPhone.

After the iDon’t campaign Verizon started running a series of commercials promoting their superior network. While the commercials were correct when comparing 3G networks, they ignored AT&T’s wide ranging “2.75G”EDGE network. Essentially, while AT&T’s EDGE network is slower than 3G networks, it’s still largely serviceable (though not impressive) in providing data coverage.

AT&T felt as though Verizon was distorting their coverage area in the ads and filed suit. After a series of spitballs and hair pulling between the companies, AT&T dropped its suit and directly responded in its own series of ads.

The ads essentially amounted to Luke Wilson trying to charm the audience while promoting AT&T’s superior features. These features being … basically a list of iPhone selling points that Verizon phones lacked. Of course, these claims were once again debatable. AT&T claimed only they could let you talk and surf the web. Funny thing is, I personally have Verizon’s Droid and use it to talk and surf on a daily basis (Bleeker, 2009).”

Like any good controversy, the respective sides should solve their differences like all good human beings do. I call for a dance off. Ok, so I digress but doesn’t this seem juvenile? I think of one of only a handful of people that look at cell phones as a necessary evil.

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