- Everyone was curious as to how Verizon and AT&T were going to respond to T-Mobile when it announced the “Switching Made Easy” maneuver on November 20
- Verizon responded almost immediately with an explanation about why Verizon offers a superior switching experience
- AT&T took a different route and now it’s facing off with T-Mobile in a Texas court
AT&T and T-Mobile appear to be in a giant stand-off over T-Mobile’s new “Switching Made Easy” gambit, with AT&T taking T-Mobile to court and demanding that a restraining order be issued, pronto.
AT&T alleges that T-Mobile is using an automated bot to harvest private customer account information, deliberately circumventing AT&T’s security measures and scraping more than 100 categories of personal account information on AT&T customers, including billing history and physical address, installment plans and payoffs and usage details.
“This case is not about competition for customers,” AT&T told the court. “It is about T-Mobile’s deliberate, unauthorized and deceptive intrusions into AT&T’s computer systems to scrape AT&T customer data using its ‘T-Life App.’”
AT&T said it repeatedly tried to stop T-Mobile from accessing AT&T’s systems, but that T-Mobile “intentionally reengineered T-Life to evade AT&T’s security measures” even after it was put on notice by AT&T through a cease-and-desist letter.
In a statement, AT&T said it’s sticking up for its customers.
“AT&T has taken actions to prevent T-Mobile from putting customers at risk through its irresponsible implementation of bots and AI to unlawfully harvest private customer data and competitors’ intellectual property,” AT&T said in the statement. “Our customers trust AT&T with their personal information, and we will continue to protect them from T-Mobile’s reckless business practices by giving them, not an unknown bot, control of their personal data.”
T-Mobile’s switching tool
This all started when T-Mobile on November 20 announced its latest “un-carrier” move, with newly installed CEO Srini Gopalan presenting “Switching Made Easy” during a Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix event.
The switching is made easier via a piece of software in the T-Life app that enables T-Mobile to use AI to search a prospective customer’s AT&T or Verizon account and suggest the best T-Mobile plan, with the ability to switch an account over to T-Mobile in 15 minutes.
Verizon responded almost immediately with a press release explaining how speed isn’t always better when automating the switching process and that it’s the quality of the experience that matters. According to Verizon, it offers a more flexible, transparent path to correctly setting up a new account.
It’s unknown whether Verizon is going to take legal action against T-Mobile. Verizon declined to comment today.
AT&T’s attempts to block it
As for AT&T, it said that once it discovered the “Switch Made Easy” scraping tool’s intrusion into its computer systems, it took steps to protect customers’ data by developing and implementing additional security measures in an effort to detect and block intrusions from T-Mobile’s scraping tool – to no avail.
AT&T asked (sort of politely, we guess) that T-Mobile stop unauthorized access into AT&T’s computer systems, but T-Mobile resisted, which is what led to AT&T seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against T-Mobile. AT&T filed its complaint and subsequent brief in support of a restraining order on November 26 and November 30, respectively, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division.
Of course, T-Mobile says it’s doing nothing wrong here. Its “15 Minutes to Better” AI-powered switching tool went live commercially on December 1.
“AT&T’s claims are wrong on the facts and the law. Easy Switch simply and safely empowers consumers to seamlessly access and share their own information so that they can make an informed choice about their wireless provider and plan,” T-Mobile said in a statement.
T-Mobile added that “we remain committed to transparency, simplicity and ensuring consumers have the freedom to choose, and we will continue to vigorously oppose AT&T's efforts to hamper consumer choice.”
Analyst take
Fierce reached out to Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techsponential, for his take on the latest maneuvers by the carriers. He attended T-Mobile’s November 20 press conference in Las Vegas where it unveiled Easy Switch.
“T-Mobile believes that consumers have the right to log into their accounts and show their bill to anyone they want – their family members, their accountant, or a purple-hued competitor,” Greengart told Fierce via email today. “AT&T also asks consumers to present them with a bill from a prior carrier to claim device buyout offers; T-Mobile has simply automated the process.”
Greengart said he can’t comment on who will prevail in the lawsuit – after all, he’s a tech analyst, not a lawyer. “But I am not surprised that an initiative to help customers switch would get AT&T's attention,” he said.