Verizon commercial violates terms of service?

Techdirt and PCSintel have interesting perspective pieces on the latest Verizon Wireless/Motorola Q TV ad spot, which demonstrates the Q's many features, including what seems to be streaming video. Of course, streaming video over Verizon's network is a big no-no in the carrier's terms of service agreement--unless it's done through V Cast. But V Cast is not available for Q users, at least not yet. Apparently, Verizon has made a similar goof in the past when it featured the HTC XV6600 handset streaming CNN in what seemed like a live manner on a previous TV ad spot. While the carrier may claim it was streaming locally, or that the video shown was simply preloaded onto the device another way, it's certainly misleading to extol the many "It's the Network" features and then show streaming video without clarifying how the video arrived on the handset.

In any case, we are fans of the Q here at Fierce, and are even giving a Q away to one lucky voter in our Fierce Favorites blog contest, which wraps up next week. We encourage the winner, however, to use the Q in accordance with Verizon's TOS.

For more on the Verizon commercial:
- see this blog entry