How to become Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer in 2024

Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer Install, set up, rearrange, or remove switching, distribution, routing, and dialing equipment used in central offices or headends. Service or repair telephone, cable television, Internet, and other communications equipment on customers' property. May install communications equipment or communications wiring in buildings.

Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer is Also Know as

In different settings, Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer is titled as

  • Broadband Technician
  • Central Office Technician
  • Combination Technician
  • Customer Service Technician (CST)
  • Field Technician
  • Install and Repair Technician
  • Installer
  • Outside Plant Technician
  • Service Technician
  • Telecommunications Technician

Education and Training of Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

Training Required for Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer in different industries are

What Do Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer do?

  • Note differences in wire and cable colors so that work can be performed correctly.
  • Test circuits and components of malfunctioning telecommunications equipment to isolate sources of malfunctions, using test meters, circuit diagrams, polarity probes, and other hand tools.
  • Test repaired, newly installed, or updated equipment to ensure that it functions properly and conforms to specifications, using test equipment and observation.
  • Drive crew trucks to and from work areas.
  • Inspect equipment on a regular basis to ensure proper functioning.
  • Repair or replace faulty equipment, such as defective and damaged telephones, wires, switching system components, and associated equipment.
  • Remove and remake connections to change circuit layouts, following work orders or diagrams.
  • Demonstrate equipment to customers and explain its use, responding to any inquiries or complaints.
  • Analyze test readings, computer printouts, and trouble reports to determine equipment repair needs and required repair methods.
  • Adjust or modify equipment to enhance equipment performance or to respond to customer requests.
  • Request support from technical service centers when on-site procedures fail to solve installation or maintenance problems.
  • Remove loose wires and other debris after work is completed.
  • Assemble and install communication equipment such as data and telephone communication lines, wiring, switching equipment, wiring frames, power apparatus, computer systems, and networks.
  • Communicate with bases, using telephones or two-way radios to receive instructions or technical advice, or to report equipment status.
  • Collaborate with other workers to locate and correct malfunctions.
  • Review manufacturer's instructions, manuals, technical specifications, building permits, and ordinances to determine communication equipment requirements and procedures.
  • Test connections to ensure that power supplies are adequate and that communications links function.
  • Climb poles and ladders, use truck-mounted booms, and enter areas such as manholes and cable vaults to install, maintain, or inspect equipment.
  • Refer to manufacturers' manuals to obtain maintenance instructions pertaining to specific malfunctions.
  • Designate cables available for use.
  • Run wires between components and to outside cable systems, connecting them to wires from telephone poles or underground cable accesses.
  • Remove and replace plug-in circuit equipment.
  • Route and connect cables and lines to switches, switchboard equipment, and distributing frames, using wire-wrap guns or soldering irons to connect wires to terminals.
  • Clean and maintain tools, test equipment, and motor vehicles.
  • Program computerized switches and switchboards to provide requested features.
  • Diagnose and correct problems from remote locations, using special switchboards to find the sources of problems.
  • Maintain computer and manual records pertaining to facilities and equipment.
  • Install updated software and programs that maintain existing software or provide requested features, such as time-correlated call routing.
  • Enter codes needed to correct electronic switching system programming.
  • Perform database verifications, using computers.
  • Address special issues or situations, such as illegal or unauthorized use of equipment, or cases of electrical or acoustic shock.
  • Examine telephone transmission facilities to determine requirements for new or additional telephone services.
  • Determine viability of sites through observation, and discuss site locations and construction requirements with customers.
  • Perform routine maintenance on equipment, including adjusting and lubricating components and painting worn or exposed areas.
  • Measure distances from landmarks to identify exact installation sites for equipment.
  • Clean switches and replace contact points, using vacuum hoses, solvents, and hand tools.
  • Dig holes or trenches as necessary for equipment installation and access.
  • Install telephone station equipment, such as intercommunication systems, transmitters, receivers, relays, and ringers, and related apparatus, such as coin collectors, telephone booths, and switching-key equipment.
  • Provide input into the design and manufacturing of new equipment.
  • Place intercept circuits on terminals to handle vacant lines in central office installations.

Qualities of Good Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

  • Adjustable hand wrenches
  • Analog probes
  • Battery-powered punchdown tools
  • Bridge tap detectors
  • Cable cutters
  • Cable fault finders
  • Cable splicer knives
  • Diagonal-cutting pliers
  • Digital multimeters
  • Double-ended screwstarters
  • Double-sided magnetic tape measures
  • Electricians' scissors
  • Fiberoptic cable testers
  • Handheld dataloggers
  • Hex key sets
  • In-line modular adapters
  • Insulated screwdrivers
  • Longnosed pliers
  • Modem verification units
  • Multifunction cable testers
  • Nut wrenches
  • Penlights
  • Personal computers
  • Pocket toners
  • Polarity testers
  • Receptacle analyzers
  • Slip joint pliers
  • Stepladders
  • T-strippers
  • Tablet computers
  • Telecom test sets
  • Telephone function test sets
  • Tone generator kits
  • Utility knives
  • Wire cutters
  • Wire strippers

Technology Skills required for Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installer

  • Apache Struts
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Cisco IOS
  • Firewall software
  • Fluke ClearSight Analyzer
  • Fluke Networks Fluke TechEXPERT
  • Fluke Networks TechAdvisor Field Access System
  • Geographic information system GIS systems
  • IBM Domino
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Operating system software
  • Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
  • Voice over internet protocol VoIP system software