AT&T, which is locked in a scuffle of sorts over smartphone devices and customers with rival carrier Verizon, has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleging that Verizon’s latest TV ads wrongly indicate that AT&T has gaps in wireless coverage. 

Noting that the “misleading” coverage maps shown in Verizon’s recent advertisements are causing it a loss of “incalculable market share,” AT&T said that the ads mislead the consumers to assume that AT&T’s network coverage is only limited to areas where it offers high-speed, 3G mobile services.

While the allegedly contentious maps depict Verizon’s and AT&T’s 3G service in blue colors for both carriers, with Verizon covering a greater part of the US map, AT&T has focused only the white and blank areas for the lawsuit.

Seeking an emergency injunction to stop the Verizon ads, AT&T claims that it undisputedly has coverage in areas depicted by white or blank spaces on the maps; and that its lack of 3G coverage in those areas does not imply that there is no coverage at all, as the maps suggest.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s spokeswoman Brenda Raney has asserted that the “maps are accurate,” and clarified that, in general, the ads “serve to inform customers where coverage is available that's critical to smartphones. That's important. Their (AT&T’s) 3G coverage is limited.”