Telecommunication giants Telstra and Optus will head to court next week over claims Optus is running misleading advertising.
Optus temporarily agreed to remove the advertisement from its webpage - without admitting liability - but will continue to screen it on television, after Telstra sought an urgent injunction in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday.
Telstra alleges the ad, which has been running since about January 29, says the difference between Optus' mobile coverage and Telstra's mobile coverage is less than one per cent.
In court documents, Telstra said the difference between the geographic coverage provided by the two companies was material and substantial.
As of February 6, Telstra's network covered more than 2.3 million square kilometres, whereas Optus, as of November 21 last year, covered one million square kilometres, Telstra said.
It says one of the representations Optus makes in the ad is the Optus Mobile network and the Telstra Mobile Network cover 98.5 per cent and 99.3 per cent of the Australian landmass respectively.
In the ad, the numbers are represented visually against a map of Australia.
A voiceover reads: "When it comes to the percentage of Australians the Optus mobile network reaches, there isn't much difference between us and Telstra. In fact, it is less than one per cent."
Matthew Collins SC, for Telstra, told the court customers were attracted to Telstra because it was perceived to have the strongest network.
"The advertisement has an ongoing capacity to mislead customers," Dr Collins said.
However lawyers for Optus said the ad referred to the percentage of customers covered by their network.
"The language focuses on population reach," Peter Jopling, for Optus, argued.
He said this was different to geographic reach.
A trial will be held on the question of liability on Wednesday.
