The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureau has recommended that Sprint stop running ads saying that the carrier has "America's most dependable 3G network." The recommendation comes after Verizon, fresh off of their lover's quarrel with AT&T, filed a complaint with the agency claiming that Sprint was using old data to support their claim. According to a NAD statement, Nielsen "drive test" data does confirm that Verizon's network has been more reliable of late:Sprint, which used both old and new Nielsen data to draw their conclusion, says they'll appeal the ruling. As we recently noted when discussing how ISPs have taken heat from NAD for advertising coax or DSL networks as "fiber," the NAD debate process often lacks "teeth," given the entire process is voluntary. ISPs can (and often do) simply ignore NAD's recommendations. NAD then forwards the complaint on to the FTC, which often subsequently ignores the advertising feud unless the claims made are particularly ridiculous (using Sprint's network results in large goiters!).

Since the project was announced, analysts have raised questions over whether Sprint and Clearwire's Mobile WiMax joint venture would have enough money to successfully fund a full deployment. Estimates to bring the service to 140 million POPs in fifty US markets ranged as high as $12 billion in some quarters, though Clearwire itself has always said they'd get the job done for considerably less.

After several weeks of bickering in the public eye between AT&T and Verizon, Apple this week jumped into the debate feet first with two new ads. The ads, like AT&T's new ads featuring actor Luke Wilson, try to brush aside Verizon's criticisms of AT&T 3G network coverage and performance by highlighting that AT&T iPhone users can browse the Internet and talk on the phone at the same time.

Glenn Fleishman directs our attention to the fact that despite the constant calls for in-flight broadband service, Portfolio notes that people just aren't interested in paying for it. Or at least that's the conclusion author Joe Brancatelli comes to, despite admitting in the piece that hard user numbers "are nearly impossible to come by." Neither the airlines or the major in-flight Wi-Fi players (Aircell and Row44) are willing to talk real numbers, though insiders are apparently willing to talk anonymously about a few things: story continues..

Like Comcast, Time Warner Cable is reselling Clearwire Mobile WiMax service and bundling it with the company's existing broadband, TV and VoIP services. Back in October, the company indicated that they'd be launching their incarnation of the service starting December 1 in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro.

A few weeks ago, you might recall that Verizon decided they were going to raise their early termination fees for smartphone users from $175 to $300. You might also recall how this annoyed Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who wrote to both the FCC and Verizon to complain that the ETF hike was "anti-consumer and anti-competitive." Klobuchar is now apparently trying to put her legislation where her angst is. According to an exclusive report from The Hill, the Senator is unveiling a new bill taking aim at ETFs. Details are vague, but the bill would attempt to limit the size and scope of such fees. Klobuchar's previous efforts on this front weren't passed into law, but they did get carriers to voluntarily pro-rate (reduce the ETF each month you're under contract).

Earlier this month we noted that Verizon had started offering a trio of new prepaid wireless broadband options for those of you who couldn't find an open Wi-Fi hotspot, simply hate contracts, and don't mind paying a steep premium for bandwidth. Verizon now offers a $15, 75MB "day pass" plan, a $30, 250MB "week pass" plan, or a $50, 500MB "month pass" plan.

AT&T continues their efforts to counter Verizon's recent uppercut series of ads making fun of the AT&T 3G network's limited footprint and sub-par performance. AT&T's been running three new ads that feature actor Luke Wilson mocking Verizon for the inability of its customers to talk and surf the web at the same time, while using postcards and a giant map to reiterate that AT&T has EDGE and voice coverage across most of America.

There's been a flurry of rumors lately surrounding T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, and their desire to improve T-Mobile's fourth-place fortunes in the U.S. wireless market.

Apparently taking a page out of this month's advertising debate between AT&T and Verizon, Canadian carrier Telus has sued Rogers Communications for ads claiming that the Rogers wireless network is "the fastest and most reliable in the country." Telus and Bell Canada have of course just launched their new, $1 billion HSPA network, which offers speeds up to 21 Mbps to Canadian customers. As such, Telus demanded earlier this month that Rogers stop making advertising claims that they held the 3G speed edge -- a request Rogers ignored, since they too offer 21 Mbps HSPA+ service. "Telus has not submitted any data on their network performance and we look forward to vigorously defending our position in court," says Rogers.

After spending the last week or so taking pot shots at each other, AT&T and Verizon met in court yesterday to do legal battle over Verizon's latest wireless ads, which criticize AT&T's 3G network coverage and performance. AT&T had complained to the courts that the 3G coverage maps (clearly labeled as such) in the ads could confuse customers into thinking customers didn't get voice and EDGE coverage in non-3G markets. The Judge overseeing the case has not surprisingly denied AT&T's request to have the ads pulled, but has set a December 16 date to hear further arguments in the case.

Of course by the time this is settled, the "damage" to AT&T will already have been done -- made worse in this case by all the extra attention AT&T's suit brought to Verizon's ads, and in turn AT&T's network coverage. To try and make up some ground, AT&T has launched a new series of ads featuring Luke Wilson, proclaiming rather vaguely that AT&T offers "the best 3G experience." Surely there's some AT&T customers who'd like to take AT&T to task on that claim after the last year's worth of iPhone connectivity issues, belated MMS functionality and other problems?

At this point, AT&T's probably better off just giving those advertising and legal fees to their network engineers, who are in the field busily trying to upgrade the network and migrating markets to 850MHz.

As promised, the FCC today voted to impose a shot clock aimed at speeding up municipal approval for the placing of wireless towers. According to an FCC news release (pdf), the new agency rules impose a 90 day limit to states and municipalities to approve or deny collocation (tower sharing) requests, and 150 day limit to act on new tower placement requests. It's something the wireless industry has been lobbying for for a while. According to wireless industry lobbyists, (pdf) there's currently 760 new tower placement applications nationally that have been waiting for approval for at least a year, and 180 applications that have been waiting at least three years (though the industry has been known to play up government dysfunction for effect). Municipalities are expected to challenge the ruling in the courts over fears that they'd be ceding too much state zoning control to Uncle Sam.

Telecompetitor directs our attention to a study by ABI Research that indicates that femtocell shipments this year have been well, less than impressive. The technology, which creates essentially a micro-cell tower in the home, helps with coverage issues by allowing users to make calls over their home broadband connection.

Last week AT&T tried their best to get Verizon's new ad campaign shuttered. The series of ads poke fun at AT&T's lackluster 3G coverage and network performance, something AT&T didn't find amusing. Verizon has now filed their 53 page legal retort (pdf) to AT&T's complaint, which as you'd expect argues that illustrating AT&T's network limitations is a perfectly fair form of advertising. On page seven sits this gem: "AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s 'There’s A Map For That' advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts." As for AT&T's claim that the maps used to highlight AT&T's 3G coverage are unfair? "AT&T does not like the truthful picture painted by that comparison," says Verizon.

Back in 2007, Minnesota's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Sprint for extending a customer's long term contract without their knowledge. Just a few years back, most of the major wireless carriers had a nasty habit of extending a user's contract quietly every time even minor plan changes were made, then socking the user with early termination fees when they though their original contract was up and tried to leave. Minnesota's suit gained national attention, and carriers have since backed away from the practice. Today Sprint settled with the State of Minnesota, and Minnesota Sprint customers can get their early termination fees refunded in full. Impacted Minnesota consumers can either call the Minnesota Attorney General's Office at 1-800-657-3787 or 651-296-3353, or fill out this form and mail it in.

Sprint today has announced that they've launched their faster Mobile WiMax wireless broadband service in both Austin and San Antonio. According to Sprint, customer plans for the new service cost $69.99 monthly for access to both the Sprint 3G and 4G network.

The significantly more open nature of the Android mobile operating system is going to test Verizon's promise to open up their network and devices in short order. As recently noted, Verizon in 2010 hopes to charge an additional $30 a month for tethering, on top of the $30 user's already pay for data -- all of which will be capped at 5 GB of data use per month. As Wired notes however, the open source nature of the Android operating system driving the Droid should have hackers providing a slew of additional functionality (including tethering) in short order. The source code for Android 2.0 hasn't been released yet, but Wired apparently didn't know there's already tools available that are allowing Droid owners to tether, for free, before Verizon even offers it officially. Of course there's no getting around that 5 GB monthly usage cap.

Whether it comes to triple play broadband or wireless service, pricing plans are often designed to give the illusion of value -- instead of the real thing. Bundle plans are often designed to prevent direct comparisons with a competitor's service, and plans are almost always designed to get you to pay more money than you'd like.

Earlier this week we reported how a free, tiny (1,000 feet total) municipal Wi-Fi network in Ohio was forced to shut down after an MPAA legal warning. A network user had apparently transferred a file copyrighted by Sony Pictures, and instead of risking a costly legal fight, the network decided to simply shut down.

Back in June, Virgin Mobile announced a new wireless broadband service dubbed "Broadband2Go." Broadband2Go operates over Sprint's EVDO network, offering users the choice of buying pay-as-you-go cards in 100MB ($10), 250MB ($20), 500MB ($40) and 1GB ($60) increments. Not only are those not particularly impressive prices -- given Sprint itself offers 5GB of connectivity for $60 -- but Virgin Mobile puts an expiration date on the cards. While these caps are downright silly, such connections are marginally useful from a convenience perspective, assuming you don't have a 3G connection or can't find a (usually free) Wi-Fi hotspot. According to an announcement today, those of you not put off by the pricing can get the service from over 1,000 Best Buy Mobile stores, over 4,300 Radio Shack stores, Sam's Club kiosks via Radio Shack, Walmart.com and Target.com as of December 1, 2009.