A federal court [Wednesday] will consider the fate of a Verizon ad campaign that features side-by-side wireless coverage maps showing it has five times more 3G coverage than AT&T.

AT&T isn’t contesting the accuracy of Verizon’s claim, but says the ads are misleading. Verizon, in its legal response, says AT&T is suing considering the “ads are true, and the truth hurts.” AT&T wants the court, which will take in arguments today, to force Verizon to pull the five ads. Three are holiday themed.

Regardless of the outcome, legal experts say the lawsuit has put a spotlight on an even bigger problem for wireless consumers: the reliability of ad claims in general. Trying to win customers, carriers are increasingly bending the truth or omitting facts in ad campaigns, says Joel Kelsey, a lawyer with Consumers Union. All carriers do it, he says.

Consider AT&T’s current advertising claim: “Nation’s Fastest 3G Network,” which it has spent billions promoting to public who

use advanced devices such as the Apple iPhone, which runs exclusively on AT&T. To produce out the claim, Kelsey says, “You’d think they offered 3G from the foothills of Kentucky to the mountain tops of Alaska.”

The reality: AT&T doesn’t offer 3G in parts of the West, South and most of the Midwest. And where it is offered, whether the local 3G network is loaded, you’ll default to slower “2G” or “Edge” networks.

The ads don’t get deep into detail on network issues considering AT&T wants to assemble it easy for customers to understand, says AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. We think our ads are “straightforward and honest,” he says.

Tony Melone, Verizon chief technical officer, says network capacity is the real issue. AT&T “does not have ample 3G capacity … to handle demand.”

Siegel says AT&T “does not have a capacity issue. We think we’re doing a great job.”

U.S. District…

Original post by dhiram