AT&T suit against Verizon is all about the iPhone

I’m thinkin’ the lawsuit AT&T has filed against Verizon over its in-your-face “There’s a Map for That” ads that make it look like their wireless network is better than AT&T’s is underscoring the Achilles Heel of the iPhone – the often less than impressive AT&T network in runs on.

AT&T says the map Verizon shows on the ads is misleading. It seems to show huge sections of the country where there is no AT&T coverage when, it fact, AT&T’s network is very much operational.

But it’s 2G, not the 3G coverage consumers have every right to demand and that Verizon indeed does pretty much wrap the country with. While AT&T has indeed worked hard in the near three years it has had the iPhone to greatly expand its 3G footprint, it’s still woefully behind Verizon. And this suit strikes me as a last ditch effort to stop what seems to be a forgone decision by Apple – to also make the phone available for the Verizon network when its exclusive deal with AT&T expires in 2010.

Not that Apple wants to. Apple still resents Verizon and the clueless exec who tiuned the phone down when it was first offered to them. You have to wonder if that exec is still with the company.

But Apple knows it will sell millions more iPhones and make billions of bucks if they it available to Verizon. AT&T has been truly saved from financial ruin by the iPhone and has to be panicking. There’s no way they can build out 3G fast enough to match Verizon’s footprint before the exclusive deal expires come summertime. So all they can do is spin what they have and hope the lawsuit will get Verizon to back off and Apple to stay with them.

It’s not going to happen.