AT&T sets the record straight in response to Verizon attack ads

By on Nov 13, 2009 at 12:13 PM
News November 13, 2009

We’ve all seen the Verizon ads that make fun of AT&T’s network and the iPhone, and while it makes for a good chuckle, the folks at AT&T aren’t laughing. As a matter of fact, as you know, a lawsuit has been brought against Verizon to cease the airing of the ads. While the two rage on and settle the legal matter, AT&T has decided to take things into its own hands by publicly responding to the Verizon ad on its own site. Hit the jump for some of the key facts in that memo.

  • AT&T’s wireless data coverage reaches 303 million people – or 97% of the U.S. population, where they live and work. Our data coverage consists of 3 different types of technology:
  • 3G. 233 million people or 75% of the population are covered by AT&T’s 3G network, the nation’s fastest.
  • EDGE. 301 million people or more than 96% of the population are covered by EDGE. With both 3G and EDGE coverage, customers can access the Internet, send e-mail, surf the Web, stream music, download videos, send photos, text, talk and more. The only difference – with some data applications, 3G is faster than EDGE
  • GPRS. Covers 303 million people, allowing you to talk, text, e-mail and access basic websites optimized for wireless.

AT&T is also dipping its finger into Verizon’s drink by stating that the latter can’t do data and voice at the same time, and its smartphone collection is nowhere near as popular as AT&T’s smartphone lineup (read: iPhone). AT&T kind of has a point, though. What do you guys think?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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  • Scott

    Has anyone actually looked at the coverage map now on the AT&T site? You have to zoom in to the state level from the national map to see the 3G map now. I find it amusing that AT&T has now attempted to hide the fact from their consumers by changing the coverage map online. Once you drill down, the 3G map is exactly as Verizon shows in their ad. Up to now, AT&T has been proud of their “5 bar” network. What happened to that? Let’s just wait and see what 18-19 billion does for their 3G network while Verizon starts to deploy their 4G starting next year. Have fun watching AT&T stock prices continue to drop.

  • http://madmax.webhop.net max

    i’ve noticed Verizon’s coverage and speed to always be better when compared to a friend with att right next to me.
    I have found the inability to use voice and data at the same time a pain but its pretty rare that one actually needs to do both unless you tether your phone all the time for internet. i didn’t know that was an issue unique to verizon’s cdma…interesting

    • jonno

      it’s not unique to Verizon not being able to do Voice and data at the same time. That is simply the nature of EV-DO (any rev.). That said, there have been talks that a new format has been developed (SV-DO I think?) which will allow for simultaneous voice and data. That said, I think I have personally come across approximately… 10 instances over 3 years where I really would have appreciated being able to look something up on my blackberry browser or continue to BBM while in a call. Very rare that I really ~need~ it and very rare that I really really want it.

  • Hates Sheep

    Earlier in posts some quoted that At&t Bought cingullar

    let me clarfy that for a momenmt

    Cingullar Bought At&t proceeded to Rip off and upset almost all of its At&T bought customers and then after they proceeded to screw the at&T customers into hating them. They changed there name back to at&t to avoid being stuck with the bad name they themselves created for cingullar.

    that sadest truth is that anyone who disagrees with this or does not belive me is a sheep and proof that under handed business tricks like this one work.

    this is why at&T lights up your TV claiming they have the fastest 3g network (BS) its because SHEEP belive it.

    Combine thoes 3 details with the fact that they carry the i phone and now you can givbe at&t one title they have earned very well

    King/Queen of the Sheep

    the i phones a nice toy but it is especially now maybe inthe top 10 of capabilitys and they drop monthly as newer android phones come out.

    so to all you pro at&t i phone users . “Baaaa” i belive i just spoke your language.

    • cyberbullet

      Sorry to jump in and correct you on everything you think you know. But SBC Global owner of Cingular bought At&T wireless, turned a struggling wireless carrier into a somewhat profitable one. And then ATT bought out SBC global regaining ownership of its wireless company.

      Verizon has always touted its network I agree it is the best and this is why customers pay a bit more for their service. But if you think about it its the only company giving their customers their moneys worth for data.

      However it doesnt matter how great the network is. Its only as good as the phones that are on it. And in my opinion Verizon Wireless with its stringent testing policies still manages to release smart phone after smart phone with very large issues. Lets go back to the HTC touch (6900) wouldnt wake up when calls were coming in. Time from launch to 6.1 update? 8 months. Blackberry Storm released overall rated one of the worst smart phones in the industry. And still struggles with memory, battery, and connection issues.

      So Verizon does have an amazing Network.. Blah!

    • Simple_Truth

      Hate to tell you this, but you aren’t even close on the merger/buyout situation:

      Cingular (check your spelling) was a co-ownership between the wireless divisions of Bell South and SBC. Shortly after there was the following progression of events:

      1. Cingular Wireless took over AT&T Wireless (seperate company from AT&T… NYSE ticker AWS) and kept the Cingular name. Still owned by SBC and Bell South at this point

      2. SBC took over AT&T, decided to keep AT&T’s name due to brand recognition. Now Cingular is owned by Bell South and AT&T.

      3. AT&T took over Bell South. Cingular is now wholly owned by AT&T. The decision was made to ditch the Cingular name and logo and bring all of them to one big happy family under a single name.

      I love the fact that everyone else has to be wrong because … well, YOU said so. Nice. I wish I could be just like you.

      Try doing some research before posting up your idiotic comments. AT&Ts 3G network does not have the best coverage in the U.S., but the download speeds on their 3G network outpaces the Verizon EV-DO network by a pretty good clip. This isn’t me drinking the kool-aid here, this is sitting with reps from both companies and doing side-by-side comparisons.

      Your “details” seem to lack one small thing, dude… factual statements. Now, I know I used some big words here, but hopefully you will understand most of what I just said.

  • shrtbus

    I have used AT&T 3g service and it does not compare to Verizon’s 3g(Rev 0 & A) or Sprint’s for that matter. In my opinion, Sprint has the best 3g service with Verizon a very close 2nd. AT&T is somewhere in the end.

  • Sigh…

    OK OK. I’m not here to take sides. I feel Verizon is wrong by attacking att with this ads, but on the other hand. AT&T really that suck though. Every time I called AT&T customer care service made me feel like I’m fighting against them. They always say NO this No that.
    The reason AT&T still here is ONLY and ONLY there IPHONE. What happen if their IPHONE is not special anymore? What happen to AT&T??? Besides IPHONE OS is getting old and out dated don’t you guys think??? Its been 3 years and IPHONE still use OS layout except adding more storage space. Like I said earlier. I’m not taking sides, but this is what I think of the two wireless companies.

  • Mark Baer

    Verizon now has DROID now capable of voice and data at the same time. How do you like them apples!!!

  • Yomama

    I work on Blackberrys for a living and read recently that Sprint roams on all Verizon towers for free. I would like to see my actual coverage on an overlay with both for comparison. In my office, one guy has a Verizon phone and cannot get voice or data while I have a Palm Pre on Sprint with full service all the time. It seems like a general consensus that Verizon has the best coverage. With the network sharing in mind, I think I have better coverage with Sprint. I know everyone hates on Sprint but I have been with them since 99 with no serious issue. oh yeah, I pay a LOT less for service. All those who want to truly multi task, I suggest trying the new Palm OS before bashing it. I support RIM software and work with winmo and Iphones. Palm blows them away with the UI. It still needs work but 1.3.1 in only five months means work is being done and the OS is getting much more user friendly. Add flashmobile in a few months and watch my Iphones be put away for good.

    • JMoney

      Couldn’t have said it better myself, I’ve had my Pre since July and I love it.

  • TONY

    EVERYONE AT ATT IS TALKING ABOUT DATA AND VOICE BUT COME ON HOW OFTEN DO YOU REALLY DO THAT… AND ON TOP OF THAT 30 MILLION OF THE 76 MILLION CUSTOMERS HAVE AN PHONE THAT CANNOT MULTITASK ANYWAYS SO DOES IT MATTER??

    • Me

      Honestly, data and voice at the same time are handy for reading texts in the middle of a phone call and being able to respond! I’ve used that many a time. (However, probably the wrong thread to be talking about this, as I’m a Telus customer who now roams onto the AT&T network instead of Verizon now… So, maybe not the wrong thread?)

  • SB

    I love my iphone but it does give me problems. I also think AT&T should insure it. Not to mention the fact it costs me $100+ a month just to run it. Greedy companies.

    A lot of my friends have verizon and never complain. I did notice though that when they dont have service i still do. I tend to lose service is petty situations such as walking through my house.

  • William

    I made the mistake of giving up my Verizon acct for ATT and can’t wait to switch back. I live in San Francisco which you would think has adequate coverage yet can most often not even get a signal in my apartment.
    There are entire sections of the city that are just total dead zone. I don’t even answer my phone when it rings anymore, just let it go to voicemail and callback from my landline when I get home. It is too frustrating and embarrassing to try to carry on a personal conversation much less appear professional enough to conduct business with such a poor signal.

  • Jeremy

    All this talk is great, but at the end of the day you dont see verizon compairing themselves to Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. so that alone says alot. just because verizon went out and bought a bunch of junky towers instead of working on phone quality only helps the people that are just as willing to go to T-Mobile. I had Verizon and the service was great but i went through many phones and among them was the “storm” that says enough right there. Now i have AT&T’s bold and can multi task (talk on speaker phone and surf the web all at the same time) come over Verizon step it up. Also you see AT&T on american idol, ice rinks, yellow pages, home service etc. you see Verizon only on there buildings.

    • Null0byte

      Do you seriously have to ask why Verizon only mentions AT&T and not Sprint or T-Mobile?

      Maybe because AT&T is the closest competitor to Verizon and has a strong position in the market? Sprint and T-Mobile, by comparison, really don’t need any help losing customers, they seem to be doing a pretty good job of that all by themselves.

      Also, I hate to tell you…..but without that “bunch of junky towers,” a pretty phone like the iPhone (or the Bold) is pretty much just a pretty iPaperweight that happens to play music. That and lack of adequate backhaul is pretty much the root of AT&T’s problem.

  • Diabl0

    All is fair in ads and war! As Verizon stated on their counter affidavit: “We are just telling the truth and the truth hurts” Seeing the minced version of the 53 page statement of Verizon.

    I must say, I could be on the side of Verizon especially when the edge 2.5G of AT&T should not be really included on the map, because we are talking about 3G! not 2.5G! and the speed of EDGE vs 3G of Verizon is relatively slower!

    detailed review AT&T VS VERIZON: http://bit.ly/Verizon-is-just-telling-the-truth-and-the-truth-hurts

    AT&T is such a loser and we are now seeing the reasons why…

  • Prophecy

    The big problem is that the map doesnt acctually show the true 3g coverage that att has. I Live in a town that has att 3G which here it is way faster than verizons and the map that verizon is showing says that att doesnt have 3g where i live. Dont say the truth hurts when the map isnt the truth.

    Get your facts strait verizon

  • Danny

    I live in Ar. I tried a AT&T USB edge for about a week. While it did fairly well inside the major cities it was extremely poor outside. Lots of dropped connections and HORRIBLE download speeds. I switched over to a Verizon USB stick and it was much more consistent anywhere I went and even in the most remote rural areas. At many places I got nothing with AT&T where I was still getting 300-500kbps on Verizon.

  • http://www.coronaheights4rent.com Thomas M McIntyre

    I wish my ATT iPhone got ANY signal at all at my home.
    It must be my remote location in the geographic center of San Francisco!

  • sid

    Thats great, ATT fanbois sticking up for ATT haha.

    First off Verizon can’t lie about the coverage unless they are retards and want to be sued for defamation and lose multi millions if not billions of dollars. They already did get sued, but not for that.

    And i don’t think a multi billion dollar company is that stupid to blatently lie. ATT’s coverage map includes EDGE which is not 3G. The 3G coverage map shown by verizon is the real map. So for someone who said they have coverage where Verizon said there was no 3G, you were on EDGE or 2.5G

    Second ATT is probably the fastest on paper. Meaning their 3G data if im not mistaken is capable of around 7mb download.

    Now the problem is, even though they may be the fastest, what % of the time are you actually hitting those speeds? I’d rather take Verizon or Sprint at 3-5mb and have 70% reliability then ATT’s super fast 3G with like 20%. These numbers are just hypotheticals.

    I have a friend who has an iphone, and when he messes around with my palm pre on Sprints 3G network he is blown away by how fast it is. And this is in NYC if ATT can’t compete here im sure it’s not better anywhere else.

    I can tether my cellphone connection and play Left 4 Dead 2 at like 150ping, off my cell phone data!!

    I’ve have had service will all 3 companies.

    Verizon is #1 on voice always had 5 bars everywhere, they are 2nd in Data. But there plans are way over priced.

    ATT data is 3rd i think now their voice networks sucks too, i had my boss switch from verizon to ATT and he said he just kept getting dropped calls all the time. so for voice i would say a tie with sprint. Same bullshit overpriced plans.

    T-mobile data is horrible, and their voice isnt that great. And to have an unlimited plan with everything close to the price of Sprint is ridiculous compared to the network.

    Sprint is #1 in data, probably better in voice then ATT now, in dropped calls that is. Excellent plans!!

    Out of all the 3 companies, Sprint is by far the best for the consumer.

    Verizon and ATT are the same assholes just with a different mask on, overpriced rip you off bullshit.

    The best bang for your buck would be Boost Mobile which is the pre-paid devision of Sprint, i had an unlimited everything plan for $54 dollars including tax, i put a Sprint 3g phone on there and had 3G data too.

    the only problem was no roaming, but that was fine since i dont travel much. Also the lack of phone selection it was a whole process to trick customer service to allow a sprint phone on their network lol.

    Now i have sprint’s everything DATA plan which is $69.99 which has unlimited mobile to mobile calling + a 25% discount, so all and all its great.

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