Verizon Wireless must be doing something right with their new “There’s a map for that” ad campaign, because AT&T is chomping at the bit to get the spots taken off the air. Yesterday Engadget reported that the wireless carrier filed a complaint alleging false advertising and a motion to stop Verizon from airing the ads.

AT&T alleges that Verizon’s spots are misleading and lead consumers to believe they would get no cell service outside the blue areas on the maps shown in the comparison. All this even though the maps clearly show 3G coverage, and a disclaimer announces that calls can still be placed outside 3G coverage areas.

Sounds like a case of sore loser syndrome to me. Verizon came up with a really clever (and true!) marketing campaign and are rightly making the most of it. Verizon’s network is far superior to AT&T’s – ask any iPhone owner in a major metro area – in spite of the latter’s larger share of the smartphone market. The claims are absolutely true and I hope the courts shoot down AT&T’s attempt to take attention away from its shoddy 3G coverage.

Personally, I’ve had all of the major players in the U.S. wireless market, and Verizon has had the best combination of network coverage and customer service of the whole bunch. AT&T, both in its current incarnation as the new Cingular and as the original AT&T Wireless, was just about the worst on both counts (they should thank Sprint for being so terrible).

One would hope that AT&T would be spending their iPhone profits on actually improving their network instead of throwing it away on frivolous lawsuits. That way, maybe they’d actually be able to keep some of those subscribers once they lose the Apple exclusivity deal. As it stands, though, it looks like AT&T is firmly entrenched in its mediocrity, and ready to defend it to the bitter end.