I wrote on Monday that Sprint was stepping up its attacks on Cingular's EDGE network. Today, I discovered that Cingular has been running a blatant advertising campaign targeted at unhappy Sprint customers called "Say Goodbye Sprint." It is running on the back page of the first section of today's Wall Street Journal and makes some pretty bold claims, including its assertion that it, not Sprint, has the largest high-speed data network in America as well as the largest push-to-talk network area coverage in America. Cingular claims the ad is in-part a response to Sprint advertisements that compare Cingular data speeds. As analyst Walter Piecyk from Pali Research points out, you don't often see operators so blatantly target disgruntled customers from competitors. "We believe Cingular executed a superior integration plan and marketing message following its acquisition of AT&T Wireless than Sprint has done with Nextel," Piecyk wrote this morning in a research note. Remember the two have duked it out with a lawsuit over the network quality issue.
For more about Cingular's "Say Goodbye Sprint" ad campaign:
- check out this analysis on thewirelessweblog