The Top 5 Essential Telecommunication Jobs

Telecommunication is talking to someone or something with the use of technology such as the cell phone, Internet and radio. This industry is one of the fastest-moving industries. The transmission of messages used to take hours or days, but now this can be done with a single click of a button, with the message going from one point to another in seconds. Moreover, the technology used in telecommunications changes constantly. New models or upgrades of cell phones and other telecommunication gadgets come out in the market every couple of weeks or months. The technologies that allow these gadgets to converge with one another such as being able to browse the Internet on your television and cell phone are developed on a day-to-day basis. As such, working in the giant industry of telecommunication is no easy feat. Telecommunication jobs require those that are able to learn, work, and adapt quickly.

There is a large number of jobs that comprise the workforce of this huge industry. These jobs can be fieldwork such as the cable line installer, or it can mean sitting in front of a computer like the computer software engineer. Of all these jobs, however, there are five of which keep the gears of telecommunication turning.

The term engineer is quite broad and comprises a huge chunk of the industry. The Engineers are the creators of the various technologies. They develop solutions to different technological and communication problems, apply theories based on research done, and design systems. They also make sure that every aspect of these developments work and function as intended.

The product manager works hand-in-hand with the engineers to make sure that the product works. They determine the type of products that should be developed by seeking out the end users’ needs, they help develop the product and they come up with strategies on how to market and sell the product to the end user. They are involved in the product from conceptualization to sale.

Those in-charge of public and government relations are tasked with managing how the company and the products it carries are viewed by the public. They also work with the government to ensure good relations between not just the company that they work for and the government, but between the telecommunications industry as a whole and the government. Because this industry is one of the most regulated, there is also a need for those who are in-charge of government relations to lobby government officials and help draft legislation.

Salespeople sell the product or service to the customer. Aside from the ability to persuade the customer of his need of the product or service, they must also be able to learn and adapt quickly to the constantly changing industry and market. They must also have a certain level of technical know-how in order to be effective salespeople.

The customer service and support staff answer phone calls and emails from the customer. They serve as liaisons between the company and the customer, especially when problems with the product arise. They not only help to solve the problem, they also ensure the satisfaction of the customer.

Due to the size of the telecommunication industry, telecommunication jobs are widely-varied and comprise a huge portion of the worldwide workforce. The industry is fast-changing and it is always expanding. Thus, the need for skilled workers is always present.

Telecommunication Billing – What the Phone Company Doesn’t Want You to Know

Communication is the lifeblood of business, and telecommunications are at the heart of all business communication. Companies know that they need reliable, quality service of sufficient capacity to handle their needs and they are often intrigued by the latest service or technology; but the billing structure remains a mystery to most. Telephone service is taken for granted at the same time that it is grossly misunderstood. And, while businesses have historically been at the mercy of a monopoly regarding phone service, the phone company has done a pretty good job of connecting businesses to their customers. The problem with former monopolies is that they continue to think and act like monopolies.

With quality and reliability issues fairly well resolved, businesses are focusing their attention on the cost of service. However, many companies rely on the phone company to advise them on the most cost effective services available and to insure that they are being billed properly. Others rely on their internal telecommunications personnel who were trained to think like the phone company. It is important to understand that in the course of trying to improve its bottom line, the phone company may not be looking for ways to help you reduce your phone service costs. Is it coincidence that 80% of billing errors favor the phone company?

In 1934, the Federal Communications Commission was created to regulate the interstate aspects of telecommunications. However, local phone service and in-state long distance issues were left to the states to regulate.

In 1975, in response to public outrage about soaring utility bills and a telephone company scandal, the State of Texas established the Public Utilities Commission to represent and protect the public interest in regard to public utility rates, operations, and services. The Public Utilities Commission regulates the phone company (and other utilities) through tariffs that define the operations of the utility, the services it can provide and the rates it is allowed to charge.

Until 1984, telecommunications was the exclusive domain of monopolies, though it was regulated in the State of Texas by the PUC. The monopoly was so tightly held that companies had a phone room in their own buildings that was off limits to everyone but the phone company. Many businesses did not even own their own phones.

After the breakup of AT&T in 1984, businesses had to take on some of the responsibility of managing their telecommunications internally. Businesses now had to acquire their own phone systems and integrate them with the available service from the regional Bell operating companies, who still maintained a monopoly on service. With no internal expertise available, the obvious answer was to hire former phone company employees to manage internal telecommunications issues.

As complicated as the technology was, billing for phone service was even more complicated. Though these former phone company employees were, in fact, technicians, businesses increasingly (and unfairly) relied upon these technicians to manage not only their telecommunications technology issues, but phone service billing issues as well. Ironically, it is often a company’s internal telecommunications experts that prevent a company from getting the best possible rates for the services they use.

Business phone service is subject to two distinct types of billing errors: 1) usage errors based on the volume and duration of calls, and 2) rate errors based on the costs and fees the phone company is authorized to charge for phone service. Companies can themselves detect usage errors, but because billing structures are so highly complex, companies need specialized help to detect rate errors.

Tariff regulations are particularly complicated and are subject to frequent change. The current tariff schedule for SBC alone is made up of over 8,000 pages, with some 250,000 pages of retired tariffs no longer in effect. These rules are first interpreted by the phone companies and summarized into billing, operational and service policies that are interpreted a second time by phone company employees implementing the policies. With two levels of interpretation, there is no surprise that the rates businesses pay for phone service varies greatly from the language of the tariffs.

Tariff regulations are well outside the knowledge and skill set of telecom, IT and MIS personnel; and individuals with experience in telecommunications billing (usually former phone company employees) are typically trained to think like the phone company and rely on the phone company billing policies to resolve billing issues. To summarize, telecommunications personnel are simply not qualified to handle tariff and rate issues. However, because most businesses rely on their telecommunications personnel to handle billing issues, some telecom managers may avoid bringing in outside help for fear that if long-standing large errors are found, they will get the blame.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 introduced competition in the telecommunications marketplace. Various companies popped up to provide alternative local phone service. A few of these companies provided their own hardware and infrastructure, but the vast majority were simply resellers of Bell service.

While one would expect that competitive pressures would have caused the industry to operate more efficiently with fewer billing mistakes, a number of factors actually caused billing errors to increase. In fact, for the seven largest phone companies, excluding cell phone companies, consumer billing complaints rose 95% from 2002 to 2003. Many of the problems that existed with the Bells prior to deregulation remained in place after deregulation and may have even been exacerbated by budget cuts and high turnover. Most competitive local exchange carriers were merely resellers of Bell service, who simply passed through any billing errors on the underlying service while adding yet another layer of bureaucracy. Additionally, newer carriers were prone to internal billing errors because they were not yet familiar with their own billing systems.

Rather than improve operational efficiency in order to be more competitive, some telecom companies tried to trick consumers into giving them their business, according to an article by CBS News. Even some of the most reputable phone companies have been accused of “competing by cheating” including continuing to send bills after service is terminated, and billing for services never ordered.

In one published example from Direct Marketing News, AT&T was accused of incorrectly billing 200,000 to 300,000 non-customers as well as 800,000 of its customers purportedly in an effort to draw inbound calls so it could pitch them on phone services while getting around national and state do-not-call lists. Consumers who called to complain were allegedly told by AT&T agents that they would have to sign up for a calling plan in order to get the incorrect fees refunded.

In another published example, a phone company in New Jersey, after paying out over $25,000,000 in refunds, decided it would only pay refunds for overcharges back for three months. Their argument was that by paying the overcharge, the customer was agreeing to the overcharge. While regulators repeatedly rejected that argument, it continued to be used. The phone company further complicated the issue by prematurely and illegally destroying customer service records that could be used to document how far back overcharges extend.

It is hard to imagine that the phone company could be capable of such tactics. If you wonder what gives them the audacity to treat their customers that way, consider how they have reportedly treated the regulators according to an article by Forbes:

For the first time, the FCC auditors… traveled the country and spot-checked telephone buildings to verify the existence of equipment carried on the books. [T]hey looked at only 25% of the Bells’ gear… at central switching offices. They discovered $5 billion in assets was missing outright. At least another $5 billion was impossible to audit, although federal law explicitly requires otherwise. Assets carried at erroneously (or intentionally) inflated costs on the books naturally lead to higher regulated prices. FCC Auditors were intent on levying large fines and seeking billions in refunds. “When the audit team started getting huge numbers, the Commission started getting very, very nervous.” “The dollars were so huge that there was no way the FCC would pursue them.” [T]he FCC negotiated with the Bells and a few long-distance titans in a series of secret meetings ending in early 2000. The resulting deal was officially named Calls, for the Coalition of Affordable Local and Long-distance Service. [T]he Baby Bells… slash[ed] the access fees they charge long-distance carriers for routing calls to their local lines, [saying] it would save customers $3.2 billion a year. [T]hey also won the right to offset that reduction by boosting flat monthly fees… $5 billion a year. The little-noticed shift in fees… also was a way for the Bells to bury what could have become a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal.

Today, there are a variety of telecommunications options for businesses, but phone service has essentially become a commodity. Price of service has become a major factor in selection of service and service provider. And, while most businesses believe that they are taking steps to insure that they are receiving the best rates available for services, very little is actually being done to hold the phone companies to the regulated rates.
In a recent survey by Communications Convergence Magazine, 55% of businesses said that their phone bills are audited regularly for billing inaccuracies. Amazingly, 50% said that the phone company provided the audit, with only about 5% of respondents saying they used the services of a third party auditing firm. In no other area of a business would a company ever allow vendors to audit themselves.

In the same survey, 73% of businesses said they believe that there are few or no incorrect charges on their phone bill. However, the FCC and independent industry analysts have determined that more than 80% of all phone bills contain errors and that 30% of all telecommunications charges are incorrect .

The largest users of telecommunications service often justify the creation of a custom tariff that provides special pricing or they otherwise qualify for pricing on an individual case basis (ICB). These organizations are the most likely to believe that there are few or no inaccuracies on their bills. However, statistics show that due to the size and complexity of these accounts, they are actually more likely to have a billing error.

Businesses and consumers tend to give the phone company the benefit of the doubt, but overwhelming evidence shows that the phone company does not proactively recommend packages or services that would reduce costs.

Bilbiography:

“Connecticut AG Slams Telecom Companies”, CBS News, December 18, 2001.

“History and Regulation of the Telephone Industry”, Fundamentals of Telecommunications: History, The International Engineering Consortium.

Jill Andresky Fraser, “Cost Control: It Pays to Audit Phone Bills”, Inc.com, Gr

Telecommunication Software – Outsourcing Telecommunication Software Development

Telecommunications software is a type of software package that assists in facilitating electronic communications especially those processes that may require audio transmission too. Telecommunication solutions can be of varying kinds that can range from being simple software used by an end user to something more complex that can manage the functioning of complete networks. Telecommunication software developers create a range of different solutions that can encompass wireless application development and mobile solutions too.

At one level, telecommunication solutions aid the development of basic software that assist the local telephone switch to receive and send signals and on the other end it even helps in creating software for wireless application development. The functions performed by telecommunication solutions can be both basic as well as something quite intrinsic.

Telecommunication solutions are being outsourced to a country like India where experienced telecommunication software developers use their expertise to create a range of software solutions. The outsourced company offers a range of services that include development of telecommunication software solutions, testing, implementing, and maintenance of the software solutions that have been developed.

Advantage of Outsourcing Telecommunication Software
Recently a number of clients choose to outsource their telecommunication software development to Indian companies where professional telecommunication software developers work on various different technologies to develop customized solutions. There are quite a number of benefits attached to outsourcing wireless application development and mobile solutions to an outsourced company:

The need for software solutions are increasing steadily and therefore the demand to create customized telecommunication solutions have also raised. Outsourcing it to companies is a good idea because they have a team of telecommunication software developers that can provide quality service.
Costing is an important aspect and outsourcing telecommunication solutions make it possible to get quality and customized solutions at a reasonable cost.
A company does not need to hire dedicated resources to create application development and telecommunication solutions.
A company can either provide turn-key solutions or even offer assistance in terms of only doing maintenance, implementing or simply testing the viability and functionality of a particular software solution package.
One point of contact is available to handle all kinds of service issues instead of dealing with third party or any mediator in between.
It is not possible to always hire a person for various different platforms, but one can easily get work done on any platform through an outsourced company because they have professionals trained and experienced in various different technologies and platforms.

Telecommunications Planning: The ABC’s of an Integrated Telecommunications Construction Plan

The biggest challenge for any business is providing supply for market demand at a price that is beneficial to the supplier and the demander. When you work in an industry that requires infrastructure to provide a service, this equation becomes much more complex.

In July 2002, Verizon Wireless became the first major telecommunications provider in the United States to launch a 3G wireless network. As the demand of subscribers continues to evolve into being more focused on data intensive services and the speed of data availability, the importance of network upgrades and investments to support this progression has resulted in significant capital expenditures by wireless companies.

As networks continue to grow so does the demand for a strong, well planned telecommunications infrastructure strategy. Unfortunately with advancing 4G technology from 2G and 3G telecommunications hubs, the need for the 3G and 2G telecommunications equipment is quickly going the way of the dodo. Fortunately there are businesses that have the capability and the infrastructure to facilitate the decommissioning of antiquated equipment and handle the telecommunications planning, construction, setup of new telecommunications equipment and the logistics that go along with it.

Here are the ABC’s of an integrative approach to telecommunications construction:

All-Inclusive Project Management

An integrative approach to telecommunications equipment construction takes into account every aspect of the construction from start to finish. This ensures that each step in the process is considered when planning the project scope, timeframe and budget. Try and find a firm that can provide an integrated turnkey construction approach for telecom sites, which helps develop efficiencies. The integrative approach decreases the number of parties involved in planning and diminishes the probability of miscommunication.

Better Value

An integrative approach can give you better bang for your buck because they can integrate the most cost effective components and equipment. When you’re working with an integrated company they can acquire resources that fit the project scope and budget.

Convenience

An integrative telecommunications solution provider gives you the added benefit of convenience. You’ll be working with one company. This makes life easier for telecommunications companies and/or engineers who have to manage the large construction projects associated with expanding 4G networks or contracting 2G and 3G networks. That’s one project manager, one schedule and one budget.

If you’re trying to decide whether or not your business needs to de

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