Cablevision and Verizon settle broadband speed ad lawsuit

Despite some strong rhetorical volleys, Cablevision and Verizon have settled their lawsuit over Verizon's broadband speeds ads which Cablevision argued were misleading. The central issue was Verizon's depiction of an FCC study which detailed slow speeds on Cablevision's network — although the study had been conducted in March and was published in August, Verizon's ads described it as "just released." Since that time, Cablevision had made progress in upgrading and improving its network, hence the lawsuit. Neither company provided details on the settlement beyond saying that they had "reached an agreement to resolve this dispute without further need for litigation." However, Reuters notes that Verizon told the court it would alter its ads to remove references to "new" and "recent." More to the point, the ads are no longer running, though not necessarily as a direct result of the suit or settlement. Verizon spokesman Bill Kula told FierceCable that the ads "ran their course, and ended Dec. 17th." Assuming the company's next campaign doesn't include references to the FCC's report, this little saga has come to a quiet close.