November 24, 2009
Posted by Josh Levy

Verizon is doing a fine job of keeping itself in the news these days. While its Droid is gobbling up some of the attention (including blogs dedicated to dissecting every aspect of the device), most of the press is about the public's anger over the introduction of a $350 early termination fee and the company's ongoing ad war with AT&T and Apple.

First, the fee. The most recent criticism comes from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has a history of pushing back against the wireless industry's more anti-consumer practices, including introducing a bill two years ago that would have required providers to prorate their early termination fees (the providers pre-empted this by voluntarily prorating).

The word is that Klobuchar will soon introduce a new bill that would keep outrageous fees like Verizon's in check. We knew this legislation was coming down the pike, given that Klobuchar recently sent a letter to Verizon's CEO calling the company's $350 fee "anti-consumer and anti-competitive."

While we don't have details of the bill just yet, including what other regulations it may contain, it could be the first step in introducing more competition into the wireless market and curbing the industry's anti-consumer excesses.

And now, a bit about the AT&T-Verizon ad wars, which have been getting increasingly vicious — and entertaining.

First, Verizon aired ads that depicted two maps: one showing Verizon's 3G data coverage spanning all of the continental United States and one Swiss-cheesy looking map detailing AT&T's spotty 3G coverage. If you only half-paid attention to the ad (and who focuses intently on TV commercials?) you might think that Verizon simply had more data coverage than AT&T, high speed or otherwise.

AT&T sued, arguing that Verizon was intentionally misrepresenting its coverage. Then, AT&T fired back with its own ad campaign featuring actor Luke Wison.

But The Royal Tenenbaums this ain't. Luke Wilson phoned it in with an odd message that was ultimately as misleading as — and less entertaining than — the Verizon ads it was trying to counter .

Now, Apple has gotten in on the act, producing two commercials of its own that address a core Verizon weakness: Unlike AT&T's GSM network, Verizon's CDMA technology doesn't allow simultaneous voice calls and data usage.

True to Apple style, the ads are much better than AT&T's and Verizon's.

Who knows what will come next in this game. But it's clear that the carriers have all identified data as the next big thing, and they're willing to pull out all the stops — what actor will Verizon fire back with? — to win.

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