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My apologies for not getting this story up before yesterday’s post about AT&T’s new ad campaign. Yesterday we learned that Verizon’s “Map” ads will continue airing after a federal judge declined to grant AT&T a temporary restraining order. The order would have forced Verizon to stop airing their ads until AT&T’s lawsuit is settled in court.

The 3G maps featured in the ads aren’t wrong, according to AT&T, but they argue that the ads are confusing customers into thinking voice and other data services aren’t available in areas with no 3G coverage. Verizon has since modified their ads to mention that such services are available in non-3G areas.

This is the first legal blow against AT&T after Verizon’s pre-Droid ad campaign started, and I don’t think it bodes particularly well for their lawsuit. But according to Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, they will fight on:

While we are disappointed with the court’s decision on our request for a temporary restraining order, we still feel strongly that Verizon’s ads mislead consumers into thinking that AT&T doesn’t offer wireless service in large portions of the country, which is clearly not the case. We look forward to presenting our case to the court in the near future.

[Source: CNET]