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Verizon's Wireless Road Warriors

Posted by michael on from the surprisingly-mediocre dept.

Joey Patterson writes "CNN has an article about how Verizon Wireless uses technicians who drive around the country in station wagons filled with wireless gear to look for holes in the company's cell phone network and analyze the service of its competitors. This program isn't cheap (the cars cost $270,000 and $15/mile to operate), but it definitely helps Verizon find out where they stand relative to their competitors."

7 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Ad campaign by Surlyboi · · Score: 3, Funny

    While I do find that ad campaign highly annoying, it's
    pretty cool to know that those guys are out there.
    Pretty much everywhere I've been in the US (and parts
    of Canada, I've rarely lost signal. (Paid a lot of
    roaming fees, but that's my fault for not having a
    national plan, I guess)

    then again, they need to get a few of them off the
    road and into my office building, reception's awful
    in there.

    --
    Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
  2. Re:Coverage is NOT the end-all for cell companies by scott1853 · · Score: 5, Funny

    300 minutes in 1 day? You must still be in that phase where it takes 60 minutes to hang up the phone.

    "Love you, bye bye"
    "I love you too, c'ya later"
    "You're still there. I love you"
    "You hangup first, I love you more"

  3. I always thought it would be funny if... by a3d0a3m · · Score: 4, Funny

    In that commercial where he is walking around saying "Can you hear me now?" he would stop in that forest and say "Hmm... can't hear me? OK we need a cell tower right over here." and then cut to an aerial shot of the forest with a big cell phone tower coming out of the tree line finally cut to families sitting around the clearing under the cell tower enjoying their newfound reception.

    adam

    1. Re:I always thought it would be funny if... by GoRK · · Score: 3, Funny

      They could even use the tower to cook! Shape some aluminum foil into a microwave reflector and put the foodstuff at the focus. mmm them's good eatin

  4. Next up... by Mulletproof · · Score: 4, Funny

    These same vans will be equipped with ECM gear to actively jam other services cell transmissions... Sort of the minivan equivolent of the EA-6B Prowler ^__^

    "Enemy cell tower, 9 o'clock! He's transmitting!"
    "Goose switch to active jamming!"
    "But what about that other tower!?"
    "Don't worry about the tower, you just keep those fighter off..." Um, Nevermind.

    --
    You need a FREE iPod Nano
  5. aggggghhhh by linuxbert · · Score: 4, Funny

    you mean the anoying can you hear me now? guy really exists? maybee if were luckey, he will have an unfortunate run in with steve "dud your getting a dell" guy.

    or perhaps the maytag repairman can fix them, he has nothing to do anyway...

  6. AYBABT Verizon? by EvilStein · · Score: 3, Funny

    Verizon dude: "We get signal!"
    Customer: "What you say!!!"
    Customer: "Main screen turn on!"
    Sprint PCS guy "How are you gentlemen??"

    eh, you know the story...