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T-Mobile to ad watchdog: sorry, we are faster than Verizon, and will keep preaching it

By Daniel Petrov

Updated: Oct 03, 2017, 9:11 AM

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T-Mobile Verizon

The National Advertising Division (NAD), an ad industry watchdog, demanded that T-Mobile stop claiming its network is faster than Verizon's recently, as these claims are at best hard to prove, and may be misleading customers.

T-Mobile has long been using crowdsourced app logs from Ookla and OpenSignal, citing their reports on which carrier has the fastest average download speeds, latency, and so on, in advertising. It also claimed that its network covers 99.7% of Verizon's customers, but fails to mention that this is in terms of population, not actual territorial coverage. T-Mobile had to stop and ad, and NAD also issued guidelines how to modify its coverage claims to reflect the reality on the ground better.

Verizon, on the other hand, relies on a more sophisticated analysis by RootMetrics that actually involves driving around the country and measuring speeds and coverage in a standardized manner in thousands of places. That is why it wanted that NAD take a look at T-Mobile's claims, hence the warning and new ad guidelines. Needless to say, T-Mobile's flamboyant marketing style isn't budging, and as per Janice V. Kapner, T-Mobile’s SVP of corporate communications:

NAD previously recognized third-party crowd-sourced data as a way to look at network performance, so we looked at the latest results, and verified what we already knew. T-Mobile is still the fastest LTE network and we'll continue to let consumers know that.

Verizon recently altered its unlimited data plans recently to better reflect the doubling of data usage since unlimited first went live on Big Red and AT&T, and T-Mobile took a few marketing shots at the move, too, before readjusting its own offer for unlimited data access to its network, which is much less traveled than Verizon's, of course. It will be interesting to see if and how T-Mobile would adjust its plans after the potential merger with Sprint that is said to be detailed as soon as this month.

source: The Verge

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.