AT&T to roll out a nationwide, no-contract service called Aio
AT&T's Aio Wireless is introducing a new no-contract wireless plan. Starting mid-September, Aio will expand its offering from Florida, Texas, Chicago, and the Metro-Atlanta area, to include the rest of the United States, according to a Thursday聽 from AT&T.聽
The service will continue to offer three plans, which include unlimited talk, text, and data with 4G LTE. The plans range in cost from $40 to $70 per month, including taxes and fees. Aio lets users activate their mobile devices or tablets in stores or online. 聽
Seems straight-forward enough, right? Well, here's the odd part of Aio's new expanded coverage plan:
T-Mobile is suing AT&T for trademark infringement. To summarize a : T-Mobile says Aio co-opted the color magenta.聽
鈥淥ut of all of the colors in the universe,鈥� AT&T chose 鈥撀爊ot purple, not pink 鈥撀爉agenta, as Aio鈥檚 company color, according to the complaint T-Mobile鈥檚 lawyers filed.
鈥淎T&T鈥檚 subsidiary鈥檚 use of magenta to attract T-Mobile customers is likely to dilute T-Mobile鈥檚 famous magenta color trademark, and to create initial confusion as to the source or affiliation of AT&T鈥檚 subsidiary鈥檚 business,鈥� the complaint continues. Forbes did a thorough 鈥� complete with Photoshop images 鈥� of the two companies' shades of magenta, and came to the conclusion that the two pink-purple colors are different, though on the same spectrum.聽
It's not entirely clear how T-Mobile v. Aio Wireless will unfold, but in the meantime, Aio wireless' expanding coverage plan will add some healthy competition to the month-to-month wireless plan market, even if Aio's choice of company colors are held in question.
