We've all seen the ads on TV: One wireless carrier says it's the fastest, another says it's the most reliable. It all blends together in the head after a while.
But AT&T takes umbrage with Verizon's claims of having "America's Most Reliable 3G Network." On Monday, AT&T filed a claim against Verizon for misleading advertisements, filed with the National Advertising Division of the Council for Better Business Bureaus. In return, Verizon is seeking a court judgement that its claims are accurate, Reuters reports.
You'd think AT&T has come up with some damning evidence that Verizon's numbers are wrong, but that's not the case. The carrier merely believes that connection speed factors into reliability, while Verizon says they're separate issues. "Verizon's claim that speed is not a relevant factor to a reliable 3G network is preposterous," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Reuters in a statement.
The content of Verizon's ads reflect reliability in the traditional sense of the word. People walk into areas typically associated with nonexistent coverage, only to find the whole network behind them. In other words, it's there when you need it -- the very definition of dependability -- regardless of whether another network is faster. It seems to me that AT&T is just jealous of Verizon's reputation as a reliable carrier, and is desperately trying to poke holes in that sentiment.
The idea that speed affects reliability is valid to a certain point -- for instance, if you've always got a 3G signal but it's slower than an EDGE connection -- but then AT&T would have to prove that in court, and drawing a line in the sand for connection speed seems like a slippery slope. If a judge agrees to sit down with both carriers, and the data, and make a determination, the whole thing could shape up to be a huge mess.
