Judge denies AT&T's restraining order request over Verizon 3G map ads

A federal judge denied AT&T's request to issue a temporary restraining order that would have forced Verizon to stop showing ads that feature a side-by-side map that shows Verizon Wireless' 3G coverage as significantly better than AT&T's.

AT&T filed suit in federal district court earlier this month in Atlanta, claiming Verizon's ads mislead customers by suggesting that AT&T subscribers have no coverage at all. AT&T has called the ads blatantly false and has said that the commercials have caused irreparable harm to the company.

AT&T recently sought to "set the record straight" with its customers, noting that its 3G coverage covers 75 percent of the U.S. population, and that 96 percent is covered by its EDGE data network.

AT&T said it plans to continue with the case.

"While we are disappointed with the court's decision on our request for a temporary restraining order, we still feel strongly that Verizon's ads mislead consumers into thinking that AT&T doesn't offer wireless service in large portions of the country, which is clearly not the case," Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said in an email to Cnet. "We look forward to presenting our case to the court in the near future."

Meanwhile, Verizon seemed pleased with the turn of events. "We expected the outcome," Verizon spokesman Jim Gerace told FierceWireless. "And now we're getting on with the business of competing for customers in the marketplace and not the courtroom."

For more:
- see this Cnet article [1]

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AT&T sues Verizon over 'there's a map for that' ad [4]
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