I remember the day one of Verizon’s local reps handed me a piece of the company’s new marketing campaign - one that takes deliberate aim at competitors AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

My first thought was that it reminded me of those ads used this summer by DirecTV to go after customers of bankrupt cable provider Charter Communications. Those ads basically suggested customers would be better off switching to a more stable company to avoid any troubles from the bankruptcy. The companies ended up in court, with the judge forcing the satellite provider to modify some of the language.

Whatever the result, it was an example of one company launching an offensive against another. And I have to admit there’s a part of me that says: This could be fun to watch.

Verizon’s campaign seeks to highlight the the fact that its 3G network is bigger than its competitors. And it offered a map to prove it. One of its commercials took a direct swipe at AT&T and the iPhone “there’s an app for that” campaign. Verizon’s ad says: “There a map for that,” and offers a side by side look at 3G coverage areas.

Well, apparently AT&T was less than amused. ArsTechnica has a story examining the feud that has ended up in court.

AT&T was understandably miffed. The problem was that Verizon was specifically showing 3G coverage on its maps, and not overall (2.5G/EDGE) coverage from both networks. Because Verizon’s entire network is 3G while most of AT&T’s is 2G (with 3G currently expanding its reach throughout the US), of course Verizon’s 3G coverage map looks impressive compared to AT&T’s.

After hearing complaints by AT&T, Verizon made some changes to the ads, but apparently they weren’t strong enough to ward off legal action. I’m certainly no legal expert and will not venture any sort of guess as to which of these companies would prevail in court. Should be enjoyable to watch, though.