Can you hear me now?
Gary Fankhauser’s job is to make sure you can. Fankhauser is a Verizon Wireless technician whose job the company’s famed “Can you hear me now” marketing campaign is based upon.
He is one of 60 Verizon technicians across the U.S. who drive up to eight hours a day testing cellphone reception and data-download speeds. Other cellphone providers do similar testing.
“I love it,” said Fankhauser, the lone Verizon technician for the state of Colorado. “It’s kind of being in the office and being outside at the same time.”
The reason for the testing is to eliminate any “dead zones,” which can end your cellphone conversation.
Ten days out of the month, Fankhauser will leave his home near Tamarac Square and spend eight hours on the road. He splits his time between his car and his office in Aurora.
His route is pre-determined by Verizon.
Inside Fankhauser’s “mobile office,” a white 2004 GMC Suburban, is $400,000 worth of equipment. Two large metal boxes contain eight cellphones from rival competitors, which are tested along with Verizon’s service. On the outside are 21 cellphone antennas.
“Since we are testing our own network, we might as well be testing our competitors’,” Fankhauser said.
Each phone makes a call of about 2½ minutes. The phones play recorded sayings using combinations of consonants and vowels used in normal conversation. “These days, chicken legs are a rare dish,” and “He carved a head from a round block of marble,” are two examples.
The results are displayed on two laptops in the passenger seat and are also sent back to Fankhauser’s office computer.
If a phone call is dropped or unable to connect to the network, a voice blares over the laptop informing Fankhauser.
“We usually beat or tie the competition,” Fankhauser said of the number of dropped calls Verizon experiences on his route.
Fankhauser averages between 2,000 and 3,000 miles a month covering three states: Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. In the Denver area alone, Fankhauser averages 1,100 miles a month.
Fankhauser has been behind the wheel testing cellphone reception for a living since 1995 and has been an employee of Verizon since 2000. He said he’s never had an accident nor been pulled over by the police.
Staff writer Marcus W. Vanderberg can be reached at 303-820-1209 or mvanderberg@denverpost.com.
