Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Real Verizon Wireless Network Tester Crucial to Firm's Service Claims

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 09:11:18 -0500

Real Verizon Wireless Network Tester Crucial to Firm's Service Claims

March 11, 2003 4:02pm

Mar. 10--You'd never know who he was if he passed you on the road, driving alone in his
shiny new Chevy Blazer.

His only companion is a Panasonic CF-71 "Tough Book" laptop computer that works away in
the passenger seat next to him. It
constantly gathers data as the vehicle crosses southern California's deserts, mountains,
freeways and city streets.

In a typical month, he and his truck cover about 3,000 miles of territory during 13 days
on the road.

Even at meal times, he stays close to the vehicle -- to protect $300,000 worth of
electronics equipment that's built into the back
cargo area. He eats lunch early to avoid crowds, stopping at fast-food joints for broiled
chicken tacos on most days.

Meet Rick Kinnee, one of an elite corps of Verizon Wireless technicians who test the
company's cellular network. Unlike the
actor who plays him on TV, this real Verizon test guy rarely says, "Can you hear me now?"

He only uses that phrase when he's joking around with his wife of 36 years.

Verizon Wireless spends more than any other U.S. cellular company on advertising -- it
invested more than $1 billion last year
to make the Verizon test guy one of America's most familiar characters. It also spends the
most on its network, devoting about
$4 billion a year to improve the infrastructure that technicians like Kinnee are
constantly testing.

Kinnee, 60, said his job is critical to Verizon's marketing efforts.

"We make the claim that we have the largest and highest-quality network. We can only say
that because we're constantly out
there testing," Kinnee said as he drove past a competitor's transmission tower near
Verizon's five-building campus in Irvine. He
points to the laptop. The screen is filled with graphs that represent the strength of
signals from different wireless carriers.

Verizon's is the strongest, brags Kinnee, as he toggles between different graphs on the
computer.

Not everybody agrees with Kinnee. Competition in the cellular-telecommunications business
is cutthroat.

Verizon's major competitors – Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, Nextel, T-Mobile and Cingular
Wireless – each claim to have data
that shows its network is as good or better than Verizon's. And a recent Register
spot-check of cellular service at two dozen
sites in Orange County concluded that Verizon's performance was fourth-best after
Cingular, T-Mobile, and AT&T Wireless.

Such claims don't worry Kinnee, who says his results consistently show that Verizon has
the best network in Orange County.
He looks older and maybe even a little wiser than his TV counterpart. At 5-foot-7 and 170
pounds, Kinnee is also stockier than
the 5-foot-9 actor.

The more significant difference between the two men lies in their jobs. It's the anonymous
actor's job to help Verizon attract new
customers by playing the role of the serious but likeable test guy. And it's up to Kinnee
to help the company retain those
customers by testing the network, then passing data along to engineers who make network
improvements by expanding
transmission sites or adding new ones.

Kinnee is one of 2,000 Verizon Wireless employees employed at the company's sprawling
campus on Sand Canyon Avenue in
Irvine. The company has more workers there than at any other company facility, including
its headquarters in Bedminster, N.J.
The Irvine site was completed about two years ago, when Verizon consolidated about a dozen
offices in and around Orange
County. The company manages its Western U.S. operations and Southern California business
out of Irvine.

The facility handles sales, customer service, training, public relations, finance,
marketing and security under the management
of two senior executives: West area President Brian Shay and Southern California regional
President Marni Walden.

The test-guy advertising campaign is managed from the East Coast, where officials declined
to provide any background
information about the actor in the commercials. They wouldn't supply his name, his age or
give out any other information about
him, except his height. When he makes public appearances to promote Verizon Wireless, he
shows up in character. The only
words that come out of his mouth are, "Can you hear me now?"

The company says it's keeping his identity secret because the ad campaign was designed to
get consumers to focus on its
network, not the actor.

Yet even Kinnee counts himself among the actor's fans.

"You gotta admit," he said, "it's a good ad."

http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=printnews&doc_id=NR200303111180.3_b8f1001907dea27f

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