AT&T and Verizon Pull Lawsuits, Save Face

From PC World: Attorneys for AT&T and Verizon Wireless agreed today to drop two federal lawsuits over Verizon advertising about its 3G network.

As a result, AT&T avoids giving itself an even bigger black eye than it has gotten from many iPhone users, who have complained about inadequate network coverage from the company, which is the iPhone 's exclusive carrier.

Analysts said AT&T's failure in November to win a temporary restraining order from a U.S. district court judge in Atlanta were a sign of how thin AT&T's central argument was. AT&T was claiming Verizon's "there's a map for that" ads were misleading by showing 3G coverage maps that used white space outside of AT&T's 3G coverage areas which implied there was no coverage whatsoever outside of the 3G areas.

Verizon did respond to a request by AT&T to clarify that issue, and started using words at the end of its slew of different ads that read, "voice and data services available outside 3G coverage area."

After that language was added, AT&T's main issue at court seemed even thinner, analysts noted.

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