Fresh off their wireless ad dispute over Verizon's 3G coverage maps, AT&T's now taking aim at advertisements by Time Warner Cable. According to a complaint with the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau, AT&T isn't happy about a new Time Warner Cable ad campaign running in several of their markets, which suggests that the AT&T network (and AT&T's VDSL-based U-Verse service) isn't up to the task of delivering both HD signals and quality broadband.

Specifically, in a Time Warner Cable commercial dubbed "Bad Strategy," a football player (representing the Internet) is tackled by a bigger player (representing HD). The announcer then proclaims that "those high def TV signals can make mincemeat out of your Internet service - no wonder your Internet can slow down." A radio announcement makes a similar claim that AT&T's network struggles with providing both HD content and broadband services, causing user connections to "slow down significantly."

Time Warner Cable's not entirely wrong, theoretically. As we've explored far more frequently than AT&T would like, AT&T's decision to milk copper instead of moving to last mile fiber means that distance limitations remain a thorn in AT&T's side. Some U-Verse customer gateways sync at 100Mbps, but at 1,400 feet from the VRAD. 25Mbps sometime works well at distances of 3,000 feet, but issues arise closer to and beyond 5,000 feet. Many users are further than 3,000 feet -- and with AT&T now offering additional HD streams, things had been getting pinched.

As such, AT&T is playing a constant balancing act involving compression and real time balancing of bandwidth versus HD demand. In late 2008, AT&T had to change their TOS to "manage customer expectations" in terms of getting fully advertised bandwidth and all HD capacity at the same time. According to an e-mail sent to Broadband Reports by NAD, the agency has recommended that Time Warner Cable stop running the ads, after AT&T evidence suggested no slowdowns:One solution for AT&T if they want people to stop picking on their network? Tell your investors to suck it up for the future of the company, and finally upgrade to fiber to the home. As for Time Warner Cable, they really don't have much room to talk when it comes to skimping on next-generation upgrades, as we noted earlier today. Fortunately for Time Warner Cable, NAD's ad complaint process is is a toothless pseudo-regulatory agency designed by industry to prevent government intrusion into their advertising -- so Time Warner Cable can technically ignore NAD's recommendations if they'd like.