Short Thoughts

There’s a Map for That

By now, you’ve probably seen the Verizon ads that go a little something like this: There’s a Map For That.

I’ll admit, they’re relatively clever. They do, however — and maybe I’m a little bit biased, being a loyal AT&T customer for a long time — reveal just how much the iPhone is digging into Verizon’s sales: it’d be a pretty vicious ad campaign for a company that’s not feeling that much of an effect. They’re pretty convincing ads, too; when you look at the AT&T and Verizon 3G coverage maps side-by-side, it’s pretty clear that Verizon’s 3G network is considerably larger.

It’s too bad the ads are so misleading.

Let’s pretend for a second that AT&T isn’t dealing with astronomical challenges by all accounts. We’ll say for the moment that AT&T doesn’t have many, many more iPhone users than any other iPhone-supporting carrier in the world. We can, for now, say that there really aren’t 57 million iPhone OS devices (iPhones + iPod Touches) out there in the world. We’ll even overlook the fact that, between Q2 2006 and Q2 2009, AT&T’s mobile data traffic increased nearly 5,000% (yes, 5,000% — that’s 50 times over). For the sake of this argument, let’s throw that all out the window.

Source: Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/how-the-iphone-is-blowing-everyone-else-away-in-charts/

What we’re left with is the fact that AT&T, according to their (not validated by me) claims, still maintains the fastest 3G network in the country, and one that serves a surprising number of customers, significantly more than Verizon has to deal with.

Earlier today, AT&T posted a note in response to Verizon’s ads on their Facebook fan page (excerpted here):

To Our Customers:

As the U.S. market leader in wireless data service, we typically don’t respond to competitors’ advertising. However, some recent ads from Verizon are so blatantly false and misleading, that we want to set the record straight about AT&T’s wireless data coverage.

The key facts are:

• AT&T’s wireless data coverage reaches 303 million people – or 97% of the U.S. population, where they live and work. Our data coverage consists of 3 different types of technology:
  • 3G. 233 million people or 75% of the population are covered by AT&T’s 3G network, the nation’s fastest.
  • EDGE. 301 million people or more than 96% of the population are covered by EDGE.
    • With both 3G and EDGE coverage, customers can access the Internet, send e-mail, surf the Web, stream music, download videos, send photos, text, talk and more. The only difference – with some data applications, 3G is faster than EDGE
  • GPRS. Covers 303 million people, allowing you to talk, text, e-mail and access basic websites optimized for wireless.

Focusing only on their 3G service, AT&T’s coverage (by their calculations) reaches 75% of America’s population. So why does the AT&T map look so puny next to the Verizon map?

If there’s one thing I learned from My Dad the Math Teacher, it’s that you can use numbers — specifically in graph form — to say whatever you want them to say (admittedly, I’m doing it myself right now). The map that Verizon uses for AT&T in the commercial is indeed an accurate depiction of AT&T’s 3G coverage, but it’s not a fair depiction because it’s not coupled with a population distribution map.

It’s true that AT&T’s 3G coverage is meager compared to Verizon’s, but the coverage that AT&T does have is focused on major population centers, and aims to cover the largest population possible given the incredible challenges with which it is faced. Honestly, I don’t particularly care if I can get service on Verizon’s 3G network in a 20-square-mile corn field in Nebraska, I really only care about being able to get 3G service where I live and work.

AT&T has the capability to provide 3G service to 75% of the population, and EDGE to 96% of the population, but more importantly for my argument, it works fine for me. As a matter of fact, I know very few AT&T customers who don’t like AT&T (versus many of my Verizon-using friends who would dump their carrier for a free muffin). The statistics (that I’ve unfortunately misplaced) show that AT&T’s churn rate (ie, people dumping AT&T for other carriers) is considerably lower than Verizon’s. The pervading claims that Verizon’s network is superior to AT&T’s primarily stem from one source: Verizon. It’s propagandist, and it works, but it’s simply not all that true.

I admit that I’m a bit of a fanboy, and sometimes I’m not as unbiased as I should be, but it’s hard to be unbiased when I’m so incredibly satisfied by the product I’ve received from both AT&T and Apple. After all, there’s a map for that.