Verizon was right. The truth does hurt. And it is especially painful when it’s meted out by a court of law. A U.S. District judge on Wednesday denied AT&T’s request to force Verizon to pull its “There’s A Map For That” and “Island of Misfit Toys” commercials, saying that while the ads might be “sneaky,” they are they are not misleading.
Since 2008, AT&T’s network in and around San Francisco has experienced an increase in 3G data traffic of 2,000 percent. If you find this metric as astonishing as I do, consider this: The increase in Bay Area data traffic is actually below the national average–significantly below. According to AT&T CTO John Donovan, 3G data traffic on the company’s wireless network has risen nearly 5,000 percent nationally in the past 12 quarters.
Bay Area iPhone users, relief is on the way. AT&T has almost completed a $65 million upgrade to its network in the region. The carrier has upgraded close to 850 cell sites in an effort to better handle the massive surge in data traffic it has seen in and around San Francisco since the debut of iPhone. And make no mistake: The surge has been massive.
“AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s ‘There’s A Map For That’ advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.” So begins Verizon’s response to AT&T’s complaints about its new ad campaign and as you can see, it pulls no punches. For 53 pages, the new filing mercilessly thrashes AT&T, proving over and over again that the carrier’s carping over Verizon’s ads has transformed a no-win situation into a horrific PR disaster.
After nearly three years of rumor and speculation, Dell is finally entering the smartphone market–in China and Brazil. Later this month, China Mobile and Brazil’s Claro will begin selling the company’s Mini 3, a handset designed around Google’s Android mobile OS.
As clever as it is, Verizon’s reimagining of a Rankin/Bass animated Christmas television special as a criticism of AT&T’s wireless network coverage did not go over well with Ma Bell. On Wednesday, the carrier amended its complaint against Verizon, asking a federal court in Atlanta to force its rival to immediately pull the ad and two other holiday-themed spots that debuted with it.
How quickly Sprint has gone from cutting jobs to cutting checks. Not 24 hours after announcing plans to sack between 2,000 and 25,000 employees, the company said it has agreed to invest another $1.18 billion in WiMax provider Clearwire. That’s a big check to be writing, but then, Sprint is Clearwire’s majority shareholder and the carrier’s plans for differentiated 4G services rely heavily on the outfit’s success.
If AT&T took offense at Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” ad campaign, wait until it gets a load of its rival’s newest ad spots. Unfazed by AT&T’s litigious reply to its first effort, Verizon rolled out a trio of new anti-AT&T ads over the weekend and they are brutal in their criticism of the carrier’s network coverage.
If AT&T’s lawsuit over Verizon’s allegedly misleading “there’s a map for that” ad wasn’t a public relations mistake to begin with, it will be by the time Verizon gets through with it. Responding to the suit today, Verizon rep Jeffrey Nelson used it to stoke public perception that AT&T’s network is inferior to Verizon’s.
The Palm Pre may have been the most successful handset rollout in Sprint’s history, but it hasn’t stopped the carrier from hemorrhaging customers in the months following its launch.
Good thing Sprint expects to lose fewer customers this quarter than in previous quarters. Because if the company continues to lose them at its former rate–well, things are going to get even uglier. Reporting a wider third-quarter loss than expected this morning, Sprint said it lost 545,000 wireless customers and 801,000 more in the crucial postpaid category.
Apple has a lot to gain by ending iPhone carrier exclusivity in the U.S. and signing up Verizon as a second carrier partner. According to Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall, the company may do just that in the second half of 2010.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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