T-Mobile outage? Customers wouldn't know the difference, says Verizon
Technically Incorrect: In response to reports of a nationwide outage at T-Mobile, Verizon is withering in its criticism of its competitor.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Not exactly tea and sympathy.
When Samsung had a spot of bother with exploding phones, I don't remember Apple offering: "That's karma for copying."
In the cell phone service provider world, however, things are a little more, well, Trumpian.
Invective is tossed like monkeys throw, um, mud.
So when reports emerged on Thursday that T-Mobile's wireless LTE data had gone down nationwide, Verizon offered pithy sympathy.
Verizon's vice-president of communications, Jeffrey Nelson, emitted this on Twitter: "Nationwide outage: most@TMobile customers wouldn't know the difference given usual terrible performance."
T-Mobile didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Verizon confirmed Nelson's statement as official.
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However, salvos between mobile companies are constant occurrences. Sprint hired former Verizon pitchman Paul Marcarelli to tell people that Sprint's coverage is now almost, almost as good as Verizon's.
In one of the ads, Sprint accuses Verizon of whining and panicking.
Verizon didn't turn the other cheek.
It turned Jamie Foxx onto Sprint and ridiculed the provider's alleged gaps.
In recent tests by experts at RootMetrics, Verizon came out best in everything from speed to reliability to overall quality.
But even these testing companies can't seem to agree. OpenSignal recently offered that T-Mobile was actually the best when it comes to overall download speed.
How much do consumers care about all this? Does all the mud-slinging matter? Do they even notice?
It's always a little surprising, though, when the brand leader -- Verizon -- decides to join in the fight. Many marketing theorists would say that you should let the lesser types attack you and rise above it all.
Of course, T-Mobile hasn't been too slow in finding other angles to attack Verizon.
On Friday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere quoted Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo on Twitter. Shammo had suggested that unlimited video was an unrealistic way to make money.
"'You cannot make money on an unlimited video world' - @Verizon's CFO: so everyone should just switch to @TMobile! ;)," Legere tweeted.
Is anyone keeping score? Who's winning?