What would the holidays be without bickering within 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 by 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 by the “map” ads, not considering the maps were incorrect, but considering 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…

Original post by dhiram