What would the holidays be without bickering between siblings? AT&T  and Verizon are swamping TV with ads attacking facets of each other's wireless networks. While the ads stick fairly close to the truth, there's a lot they don't say.
AT&T Inc. has been running ads with actor Luke Wilson checking off points in AT&T's favor over Verizon Wireless. It's the continuation of a spat that started a month ago, when Verizon started airing cheeky commercials that highlighted how its fast, third-generation ("3G") network has wider coverage than AT&T's 3G system .
Verizon's ad used the slogan "There's a map for that," a play off Apple Inc.'s ads for the iPhone, which tout the diversity of third-party applications for the phone with the line "There's an app for that."
AT&T sued Verizon Wireless over the "map" ads, not because the maps were incorrect, but because AT&T felt there was a danger that viewers could get the impression that AT&T had no coverage at all where it doesn't have 3G. Last week, a judge declined to force Verizon to pull the ads.
AT&T and Verizon, two offspring of Ma Bell, are getting more aggressive in their marketing, though it's not clear how much they are spending. Verizon and AT&T are both pulling away from their smaller rivals, so instead of competing with Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA, they're increasingly focused on each other. Verizon Wireless has more subscribers than AT&T -- 89 million versus 81.6 million. But AT&T added more wireless subscribers in the latest quarter -- 2 million versus 1.2 million at Verizon, which is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
Here is a look at some of the arguments being raised in the ads:
_ Coverage: It's incontrovertible that Verizon's 3G network has broader coverage that AT&T's, which is why the federal judge in Atlanta wouldn't stop the "There's a map for that" ads. Verizon's network reaches 280 million Americans, compared to AT&T's 233 million. By area, the difference is even greater -- Verizon covers cities and vast, thinly populated areas of the Midwest and West, while AT&T's 3G coverage hews closer to cities and highways. However, AT&T's older, slower "EDGE" data network covers 301 million people and is adequate for e-mail access and many other smart phone functions. (continued...)
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