Verizon's 'can you hear me now?' dude switches allegiance to Sprint

Paul Marcarelli, who appeared in Verizon advertisements during the 2000s traveling across the US saying "can you hear me now?", has switched allegiances and become Sprint's new ad guy.

Sprint's advertisement appeared during the NBA Finals on Sunday and is titled "Paul Switched." Marcarelli explains now that it is 2016, "every network is great" and that Sprint is within one percent of Verizon's network but with a cheaper price.

In a call to his old post, Marecarelli dropped a new phrase: "Can you hear that?

In a second advertisement, Marecarelli activated his new Sprint phone with a traveling salesperson and was impressed with how fast he could switchover the phone's data.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure told USA Today in an interview: "Our goal is basically to get people when they're watching our ads or watching social media to pay attention.... I think a lot of people are going to recognize Paul and see (him) in a (Sprint-colored) yellow tee show and ask themselves, `what happened?'"