By Patience Haggin
The wireless wars are heating up.
AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon Communications have long traded barbs over who offers the most reliable service, best price and broadest wireless-service coverage. Now some are upping the ante with explicit poaching efforts -- and litigation.
This fall, both Verizon and T-Mobile launched promotions designed to lure in their competitors' customers.
Verizon's "Bring Your Bill" campaign invites AT&T and T-Mobile customers to upload their bills or bring them in-store to get a counteroffer from Verizon. Last month, T-Mobile introduced "Easy Switch," which asked AT&T and Verizon customers to share their login and password, then checked their rates with an automated tool and provided a personalized competing offer.
T-Mobile's new feature kicked off a technical cat-and-mouse game. AT&T twice implemented new security measures to block the tool, then sued T-Mobile late last month in a federal court in Texas. It alleged the Easy Switch tool intruded into AT&T's computer systems and violated its terms of service "to harvest private customer account information and AT&T business information."
AT&T requested an injunction to prevent T-Mobile from accessing its computer systems and asked that the court order T-Mobile to destroy any data it obtained.
Verizon has also said T-Mobile's feature poses customer privacy concerns but isn't a party to the lawsuit. T-Mobile has since disabled the Easy Switch online tool, but maintained in court filings that the feature was lawful.
A T-Mobile spokeswoman said AT&T was blocking the tool to make it harder for customers to leave and said the litigation was an effort to limit consumer choice.
Requesting customer credentials for a rival is unprecedented, according to Roger Entner, founder of telecom research firm Recon Analytics.
Access to so much price information could give carriers the ability to undercut competitors with razor-sharp precision. For instance, T-Mobile could customize its offer for each individual, just a smidgen below competitors' rates, rather than roll out broad-based pricing plans.
Cancellation rates, known as "disconnects," have risen for major wireless carriers in recent quarters, a sign that consumers are more willing to jump between providers for the best deal, according to data from UBS. The companies have said they want to make it easier for customers to switch -- in the interest of expediting their own growth.
With Easy Switch, T-Mobile told prospective customers they could switch their service in 15 minutes without even having to call their current carrier. "In as little as one mimosa, you could switch," T-Mobile's chief operating officer, Jon Freier, said in a promotional video.
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon regularly take direct swipes at one another in splashy ad campaigns, then lodge complaints about their rivals' commercials with the National Advertising Division, an industry watchdog that referees disputes over claims like false advertising. The challenges often result in providers adjusting the claims in their ads, but can also be referred to state and federal authorities.
The ad challenges themselves are even becoming a focal point of new commercials. In a spot that AT&T introduced in October, actor Luke Wilson pulls a newspaper out of a tumbleweed and reads, "T-Mobile most challenged for deceptive ads."
An NAD spokeswoman declined to confirm whether the ad's claim about T-Mobile was accurate. T-Mobile said AT&T's recent ad campaign was deceptive.
Still, the NAD asked AT&T to pull the commercial the day after it began airing, determining that the ad ran afoul of its policy prohibiting participants from using the ad-challenge process itself for promotional purposes. AT&T then sued BBB National Programs, of which NAD is a division, accusing the group of seeking to muzzle free speech.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday the NAD referred T-Mobile to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general for declining to participate in an NAD inquiry after AT&T challenged T-Mobile advertising from November 2024 that claimed superior 5G capacity compared with its competitors.
AT&T and the Federal Trade Commission didn't respond to requests for comment.
T-Mobile said its challenged claims are true and declined to participate in the NAD inquiry because of AT&T's position that it isn't bound by NAD rules. "T-Mobile has serious confidentiality concerns with any information that would have to be shared in an NAD proceeding initiated by AT&T," a T-Mobile spokeswoman said.
AT&T's request for an injunction that would prevent T-Mobile from re-enabling its Easy Switch tool is pending. The National Advertising Division hasn't responded to AT&T's lawsuit.
The carriers are using the performance claims and account-access moves to show their personalities in the escalating marketing fight, said George Heudorfer, practitioner in residence at the University of New Haven's Pompea College of Business. He likened it to the cola wars of the 1980s -- but warned it may not be a winning strategy.
"In the end, the carrier that wins won't be the one with the loudest ad, " Heudorfer said. "It'll be the one that makes wireless feel simple, fair and trustworthy."
Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2025 22:00 ET (03:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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