Recently, Big Red began to market against AT&T’s long running “Theres an App for That” marketing campaign for the Iphone. The campaign, using the phrase “There’s a Map for That’, intends to pun against AT&T’s sub par coverage in areas across the nation. Such ads showing the extensive coverage of Verizon have been done before, but this one is notable for being a direct attack on AT&T’s coverage. In turn, AT&T has now filed a lawsuit with Verizon Wireless over the Campaign, claiming it as false advertising.

According to AT&T, the advertisements are only taking into account HSDPA coverage of AT&T, and not EDGE. According to AT&T’s interpretation of 3G, this is not proper advertising of their coverage. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless claims their EVDO service to be of 3G. Two problems that lie here are in the definition of 3G, and the fact that the two carriers use two completely different carrier bands to transmit their data (GSM AT&T vurses CDMA Verizon)

The biggest problem to the puzzle is that there is no true definition to 3G (or 4G for that matter) connectivity. Although HSDPA is the fastest speeds under AT&T, EDGE still supports broadband (PC Cards and decent speed internet.) In the long run, due to the differences of AT&T and Verizon’s carrier systems (CDMA and GSM,) it is hard to say the calling on this case, and if Verizon has or has not.

For now, AT&T stands strong with a complaint, request for restraining order, and other documents. (Thanks dslreports.com!)

Source: Dslreports

At&t had a great last quarter, activating 3.2 million new iPhones, 40% of which were purchased by customers new to AT&T. AT&T’s exclusivity deal with Apple is expected to end next year, though neither company has disclosed the terms of the arrangement.

“Even if we lose the iPhone exclusivity, we’re going to probably be the only ones that have a speed of 7.2 (Mbps) that these phones can work on,” says AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega.

At&t has been quickly trying to boost its network by expanding coverage, specifically 3G expansion.  They are turning on new 3G sites everyday, and de la Vega said dropped calls have been down about 12%.

So if the exclusivity deal ends sometime next year, will At&t’s network be enough to keep users on board, or will we see them move away as fast as possible.  That all might depend on who else picks up the iPhone.  As we all remember, both Sprint and Verizon were approched by Apple and turned the deal down.  Will either of them change their mind now?

Source: DSLReports

It appears as though Sprint’s exclusive HTC Hero won’t last very long. The people over at PhoneArena have been tipped that the HTC Hero will be coming to At&t in early 2010. Some people have said the carrier isn’t jumping on Android because they felt it would compete with the iPhone. There were no specific dates given, but if this is true, it will be At&t’s first Android phone.

Source: IntoMobile

The good people at Laptop Magazine recently undertook the daunting task of testing and rating the customer service of the Big Four carriers in the United States.

So they set out on a trip across New York City, the phone lines, and the interwebs in an effort to gauge the parts of the carriers’ customer service departments that customers will interact with the most. In their surveying, Laptop Magazine visited two New York City stores for each carrier, called customer service once during the midday and once during the post-work ‘rush hour,’ and then got onto the carrier’s website to seek help. All the while they were attempting to solve problems with a BlackBerry from that carrier: setting up email, tethering, and internet radio.

So how did the carriers rank?  Laptop Magazine has fairly extensive notes on each customer service experience they had, but what we find most interesting are the final results. The grades for the individual evaluations varied between a C- (AT&T phone support) and multiple A-, the overall grades ended up closely paralleling that spread. T-Mobile took the customer service crown with a composite score of A-, while Sprint and Verizon had to settle for sharing the second place medal after both solid B’s. Poor AT&T, however, was levied with a aggregate C+, dragged down by scores of B- and below.

Read the rest at Laptop Magazine

From sea to shining sea, users across the U.S. are chiming in that MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) works for them. It looks like AT&T is slowly but surely enabling MMS for the iPhone.

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Did you know that there are at least 5 unique versions of the HTC Touch Pro2? The original HTC design, then each of the 4 major U.S. Carrier-branded versions. Below is an exterior comparison of the HTC Touch Pro2 (codename: Rhodium) and how each U.S. Carrier has left its own unique mark on the appearance.

As a baseline, presented is the stock (unlocked, GSM) HTC Touch Pro2 straight from HTC. This is how the device was originally drawn out by the designers at HTC.

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