Don’t touch that dial! If so, you probably missed the radio ad that AT&T (formerly known as SBC) brought to the airwaves of Oklahoma City this week. That’s right, in an attempt to push the limits of truthful advertising, the telco unleashed some rather blatant fallacies on the local airwaves. Fortunately for consumers, AT&T apparently reckoned with reality and removed the ads that falsely characterized Cox Digital Telephone, the largest cable telephony service in the nation with more than 1.5 million subscribers.

The ads incorrectly called out Cox for providing unreliable telephone service, including the inability to dial 911 during certain situations. By seeking to scare consumers about competitive phone offerings, AT&T clearly did not do its homework, or worse – blatantly ignored the facts. For starters, Cox currently does not use modem equipment with batteries for telephone service in Oklahoma City. And contrary to AT&T’s false claim, telephone service in Oklahoma City will continue to operate as usual, including E911 connectivity, without a battery or even home power because Oklahoma City is network powered.

Does Cox have network powered phone service in all markets? No, in some markets, like Tulsa, Cox installs a modem with a battery embedded inside it at the home or business to provide 8 hours of standby protection during a power outage. Yet, AT&T’s advertisements aired in a market that does not even use batteries and even so, failed to mention 8 hours of standby protection, including E911 services. On that note, let it be known that Cox has always provided E911 as a standard service in all of our phone markets. It’s all part of our commitment to providing a safe and reliable way for customers to communicate, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.

As competition continues to heighten in the telecom arena, let’s continue to compete on quality performance and customer service, rather than resorting to confusing the marketplace with blatant misconceptions.