Sprint Is Now Asking Verizon, 'Can Your Hear Me Now?'

"Can you hear me now? Good."

These were the words uttered by Paul Marcarelli in Verizon Communications Inc. VZ's infamous commercials throughout the 2000s. However, he's now switched sides and is doing commercials for one of Verizon's biggest rivals, Sprint Corp S.

"I'm Paul - I used to ask if you can hear me now with Verizon," he says in a new Sprint commercial. "Not anymore. I'm with Sprint now because guess what... it's 2016 and every network is great. In fact, Sprint's reliability is now within one percent of Verizon's."

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He added that Sprint offers consumers a 50 percent savings on most Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile rates. He concluded by stating Sprint offers consumers a 50 percent savings on most Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile rates.

"Can you hear that?" he concludes.

The new commercial debuted during Sunday night's NBA Finals in which the Golden State Warriors handily defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 110-77.

Sprint CEO: Consumers Are Asking 'What Happened'

Speaking to USA Today, Sprint's CEO Marcelo Claure said Marcarelli was a "free agent" and he jumped on the opportunity to hire the "everyman" actor.

"Our goal is basically to get people when they're watching our ads or watching social media to pay attention," he told USA Today. "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?'"