The big three wireless companies — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon — are doing more than fighting for customers — they regularly engage in a secondary fight over one another’s advertisements.
The meta battle royale continued this week, starting with a new batch of ads and press releases from T-Mobile. The company claimed customers can switch to its service in 15 minutes, and may save up to 20% when they do. New T-Mobile customers will be able to get their new handsets right away via DoorDash Drive.
“Every year, over 34 million Americans switch providers, wasting over three hours on average on an outdated, confusing, complex process,” said Srini Gopalan, CEO, T-Mobile, in a live event. “At T-Mobile, we’ve taken the best of technology to bring switching into the 21st century, so that anyone can get a better value and a better experience in just 15 minutes, all on America’s Best Network.”
Within a day of T-Mobile’s live event, Verizon published its own press release its own press release countering T-Mobile’s claims, saying Verizon offers the “superior switching experience.”
The Verizon press release pointed out that customers must download T-Mobile’s app to get the deals it’s offering. The Verizon release also made the following claims:
- Verizon’s “Pro on the Go” service, which offers a trained expert help, is better than T-mobile’s DoorDash Drive delivery
- Verizon’s switching process puts security first
- Verizon offers network coverage to more than 85% of U.S. residents
The Verizon clapback comes just a few weeks after AT&T took the BBB’s National Advertising Division (NAD) to court over claims AT&T was making about T-Mobile.
It remains to be seen whether AT&T will be able to continue showing ads that say T-Mobile has a history of, well, showing bad ads.
However, it’s clear all three carriers have done time in 2025 in front of the NAD and its appellate board, the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).
In July, T-Mobile won a challenge against AT&T about AT&T’s Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) service.
In May, T-Mobile planned to appeal a decision made in favor of Verizon over claims about savings.
In March, T-Mobile won a challenge brought by Verizon about satellite-powered text messaging.
In February, the NAD sided with T-Mobile over claims about how customers can “save 20% every month vs. the other big guys,” but Verizon appealed. In May, T-Mobile said it planned to appeal with the NARB.
In January, T-Mobile agreed to comply with recommendations in two Fast-Track SWIFT challenges brought by AT&T Services from the year before.
That month, the NAD also recommended against T-Mobile in a challenge brought by Charter’s Spectrum Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) on the Verizon network.
