AT&T and Verizon Drop Foolish Lawsuits

Yesterday afternoon (12/2/09), AT&T and Verizon, two of the largest cellular carriers today, agreed to drop their lawsuits. This decision, following AT&T's claim that Verizon had been inaccurately portraying their actual coverage in their recent 'map ads'. Here is a short exert from Dow Jones Newswire:

AT&T Inc. (T) on Wednesday dismissed its lawsuit against Verizon Wireless and its recent "There's A Map For That" campaign.

AT&T had already suffered a legal setback when a judge rejected its request to pull the ads last month, which the Dallas carrier argued inaccurately suggested inferior network coverage. The court ruled that Verizon Wireless's ads, which showed maps comparing coverage, clearly talked about third-generation, or 3G, coverage.

The two were set to reappear in court on December 16th for arguments in the suit, but I assume AT&T saw their chances of making a difference in the judge's rule, and decided to back out.

Verizon also agreed to drop their miscellaneous lawsuits against AT&T. Does this mean that these two carriers will live happily ever after? No, not exactly. I expect many more ads poking fun at the other, from each side.

-Majorginge

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