The mud slinging started when AT&T sent an e-mail to its users with a subject line that said they can make a call even while they are reading the message. This was aimed directly at Verizon as its CDMA network does not support voice and data simultaneously.
Verizon hit back with its own humorous commercial making fun of AT&T's poor network. The ad describes the iPhone as a beautiful piece of art, but is useless without a great network to support it. This ad was aimed directly at AT&T as reviews have confirmed that Verizon's call quality and network is much better than AT&T's
In response to Verizon's commercial AT&T released a new commercial called "The Answer" which reaffirms the point that only AT&T's network allows you to talk and surf at the same time and this feature has a number of advantages.
The battle to be the number one carrier for the iPhone has just begun. Since iPhone is a popular product it would be interesting to watch these two companies and the digs they take at each other with their ads and commercials.