Telecommunications

When you say telecommunications, does it usually pertain to voice networks? What job opportunities does telecommunication offer (NOC)? What certifications would be useful for this kind of field? Cisco?

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gbdavidx

Telecom = phone, so if cisco is involved it probably means VoIP

CCNA -> then CISCO Voice or CCENT then CCNA Voice

gorebrush

I work in a Telecoms team and it is 100% data..

filkenjitsu

Telecom as an industry is either service providers or equipment vendors. I

work in the wireless telecommunications / Cellular industry as a data network engineer. I work strictly with layer 3 protocols and routers.

Telecommunication a as a job title will usually mean VOIP, PBX, administrating phone plans/managing vendor relations for employees cellular phones.

Do you mean Service Providers or Telecommunications job titles?

Service Providers: Cellular, WIFI Cable MSO, IP television, residential phone, satellite networks, etc.

Telecommunications job titles: PBX engineer, VOIP engineer, Telecom Manager, telecom technician, etc.

Please specify...

gorebrush

Me? Service Provider - though we will be taking on break fix support of some VoIP too.

filkenjitsu

Sorry Gorebrush, meant the OP, kharken

kharken

I'm sorry. It's just that when I hear the word telecommunications, all mobile services, even service providers come into my mind. I didn't know that telecommunications was subdivided into service provider OR voice networks. For service providers, what are the usual the job descriptions and/or certifications needed? and when you say plainly network engineer, does it refer to businesses/enterprises?

networker050184

Telecommunications is a broad term because most telephone networks have evolved into data networks. In most enterprise networks telcom refers to the phones, but in service provider land it can cover anything.

It's better to look at specific job duties. One telecom job may be the complete opposite of the next.

kharken

^exactly. that's why I got confused with the term itself.

What specific job duties are common in this field?

networker050184

It really depends on the company. There are no naming standards in the industry so one company's telecom tech may be another company's network engineer. Always go off the duties rather than the title. It's pretty safe to assume you will be working with voice or data communications in some shape or form though.

kharken

so for data communications, I guess that would be more on the service provider, right?

pitviper

Yes, there is no real distinction these days. I’m a telecom manager but my responsibilities include pretty much everything that involves sending electricity over a wire – Data, VoIP, legacy voice (POTS/PRI), video signage, and so on.

kharken

so basically the job description is a network engineer specializing in a specific field, like voice, service provider, wireless, etc.

networker050184

It's basically anything the company wants. There is no standard title so just look at the associated duties. It sucks for job searching, but unless we get all companies to get together and make agree on job titles (never going to happen) we have to deal with it.

NetworkVeteran

kharken wrote: »

so basically the job description is a network engineer specializing in a specific field, like voice, service provider, wireless, etc.

A job description of telecommunications could mean almost anything related to networking. It does not imply specialization, although that is also possible. You should seek out the actual duties/responsibilities behind the title.

The root word tele means distant.

Consider the words telepresence and telecommuter, neither of which necessarily involve telephones.

kharken

Thanks everyone! It's really kinda hard thinking of possible keywords in job search engines. I have to view all results then read the job descriptions of each.

NetworkVeteran

It's really kinda hard thinking of possible keywords in job search engines.

Type in your top certification or educational accomplishment. That usually pops up appropriate jobs. If you have no certifications/education then getting a job will be tough, but try "entry-level" or "no experience".

kharken

Thanks! I will try that

filkenjitsu

The best way to get your foot in the door in a big service provider is to take a customer service or technical support role and use their tuition reimbursement to get your degrees and certifications while learning the company and working your way up.

kharken

I've noticed that the telecom jobs require more management (based from your job posts) rather than the actual implementation/fixing/troubleshooting responsibilities of a network engineer (IT).

filkenjitsu

Not true though, the engineering roles support massive amounts of troubleshooting, especially on the LTE network elements. So many different signalling interfaces MTU issues, DNS issues, etc. Then you have the data network engineer a who troubleshoots routed networks covering entire regions of the country supporting millions of customers. OSPF, MPLS, BGP, RSVP, etc.

kharken

just want to know if the telecom industry is better than that of IT industry. Well IT overlaps with telecom in some aspects right? but I realized that in IT, it is more congested 'cause more people are shifting to IT so the supply is way more than the demand.

filkenjitsu

Service providers have extensive IT/Telecom networks along with large IT infrastructure to support their employees. My company has a whole department mad up of hundreds of people call IS Support who support all the IT at the call centers, the VOIP at the call centers, all corporate and engineering office IT systems, the customer billing back end, etc. Network engineers, telephony engineers, application developers, virtualization engineers, etc. you name it. I do not work for Verizon Wireless, but go to their website and do a job search. They have Engineering/Operations to choose from as well as IT. Read over the job descriptions to see what it is like to work in the telecom industry.

kharken

thank you sir! since then, I've always liked working with a service provider especially on the data side.