And the war to win the hearts and minds of potential iPhone buyers begins. AT&T has started running ads that demonstrate a key difference between the iPhone running on their network and Verizon’s: simultaneous voice and data transmission.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]Verizon is gearing up to sell the iPhone to the general public on February 10, 2011, finally offering some competition for AT&T, which has sold the iPhone in the United States exclusively since in debuted in 2007.

AT&T isn’t content to roll over and let Verizon take customers away, however. In a new 30-second ad spot appearing on national television, a busy office worker is show working late as he gets an unexpected call from his wife to remind him it’s their anniversary. He bounds into action, and as he talks to her on the iPhone he scrambles to make dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant.

“Only AT&T’s network lets your iPhone talk and surf at the same time,” announces a narrator.

Verizon’s network currently lacks this feature – iPhones operating on Verizon’s network interrupt their data connections if the user takes a call.