As Microsoft wraps up its anti-Google TV commercials, a new advertising war is heating up — this one between first-tier carrier AT&T and smaller competitor T-Mobile, which is looking to peel off customers by moving away from two-year contracts. Last week, AT&T went after T-Mobile’s download speeds and network stability in full-page newspaper ads, and TMoNews reports that T-Mobile is now responding in kind. Instead of printing specifics, though, T-Mobile is trying to communicate a more general message: that it’s “keeping AT&T up at night.”
New T-Mobile campaign responds to AT&T attack ads: ‘Can you see the beads of sweat?’
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
"Can you see the beads of sweat in this ad?"
All three ads show a crumpled corner of AT&T’s “truth about T-Mobile” missive, and TMoNews says they’re set to run sometime in the next few days. One wonders if readers can “see the beads of sweat” in the AT&T ad, and another references a failed 2011 merger between the two companies, asking “If AT&T thought our network wasn’t great, why did they try to buy it?” There’s some artistic license there, of course. As in most carrier mergers, T-Mobile’s spectrum was probably its biggest attraction, and AT&T argued in filings that controlling a wider swathe of spectrum was vital to its then-nascent LTE efforts. T-Mobile itself recently proposed a merger that would involve cannibalizing the MetroPCS network for more spectrum.
These ads aren’t official yet, but we don’t doubt their authenticity. T-Mobile has been up-front about taking on AT&T in upcoming ad campaigns, and T-Mobile CEO John Legere called its New York network “crap” earlier this year. Despite T-Mobile’s scrappiness, it has a lot of catching up to do: its LTE network has yet to launch, and it has about 33 million customers compared to AT&T’s 107 million.
Update: T-Mobile hasn’t confirmed the ads, but it’s sent us a statement from chief marketing officer Mike Sievert agreeing with their premise:
We love a good scrap, especially when the winner is the consumer. What’s more, we love that thousands of customers drop AT&T for a better experience at T-Mobile. So far more than two million customers have brought unlocked iPhones to T-Mobile, and counting. We won’t stop until everyone has heard our Un-carrier message.
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