How to become Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer in 2024

Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer Install and repair telecommunications cable, including fiber optics.

Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer is Also Know as

In different settings, Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer is titled as

  • Cable Splicer
  • Cable Technician
  • Cable Television Technician (Cable TV Tech)
  • Combination Technician
  • Field Service Technician
  • Installation and Repair Technician (I and R Technician)
  • Installer
  • Lineman
  • Outside Plant Technician
  • Service Technician

Education and Training of Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

Training Required for Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer in different industries are

What Do Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer do?

  • Travel to customers' premises to install, maintain, or repair audio and visual electronic reception equipment or accessories.
  • Inspect or test lines or cables, recording and analyzing test results, to assess transmission characteristics and locate faults or malfunctions.
  • Splice cables, using hand tools, epoxy, or mechanical equipment.
  • Measure signal strength at utility poles, using electronic test equipment.
  • Set up service for customers, installing, connecting, testing, or adjusting equipment.
  • Place insulation over conductors, or seal splices with moisture-proof covering.
  • Access specific areas to string lines, or install terminal boxes, auxiliary equipment, or appliances, using bucket trucks, climbing poles or ladders, or entering tunnels, trenches, or crawl spaces.
  • String cables between structures and lines from poles, towers, or trenches, and pull lines to proper tension.
  • Install equipment such as amplifiers or repeaters to maintain the strength of communications transmissions.
  • Lay underground cable directly in trenches, or string it through conduits running through trenches.
  • Clean or maintain tools or test equipment.
  • Explain cable service to subscribers after installation, and collect any installation fees due.
  • Compute impedance of wires from poles to houses to determine additional resistance needed for reducing signals to desired levels.
  • Use a variety of construction equipment to complete installations, such as digger derricks, trenchers, or cable plows.
  • Dig trenches for underground wires or cables.
  • Dig holes for power poles, using power augers or shovels, set poles in place with cranes, and hoist poles upright, using winches.
  • Fill and tamp holes, using cement, earth, and tamping devices.
  • Participate in the construction or removal of telecommunication towers or associated support structures.
  • Pull up cable by hand from large reels mounted on trucks.
  • Pull cable through ducts by hand or with winches.

Qualities of Good Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • 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.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • 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.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • 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.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

  • Adjustable hand wrenches
  • Articulating boom lift
  • Borers
  • Bubble levels
  • Bucket trucks
  • Buffer strippers
  • Cable cutters
  • Cable jacket strippers
  • Cable locators
  • Cable plows
  • Cable sheaves
  • Cable slitters
  • Cable strippers
  • Cable tie guns
  • Cable trees
  • Can wrenches
  • Card access devices
  • Channel lock pliers
  • Claw hammers
  • Coaxial security cameras
  • Combo crimping tools
  • Computer network routers
  • Cordless drills
  • Digger derricks
  • Digital multimeters
  • Digital power meters
  • Dikes
  • Drywall saws
  • Duct knives
  • Electricians' snips
  • Extension ladders
  • Fiber scribes
  • Fish tapes
  • Flathead screwdrivers
  • Gopher poles
  • Hacksaws
  • Hex sets
  • Inspection scopes
  • Intelligent field devices
  • IP security cameras
  • Lamp extractors
  • Laptop computers
  • Local area network LAN switches
  • Longnose pliers
  • Measuring tapes
  • Motorized cable reels
  • Needlenose pliers
  • Optical time domain reflectometers OTDR
  • Phillips head screwdrivers
  • Polishing pucks
  • Power dollies
  • Power winches
  • Probe picks
  • Punchdown tools
  • Sheath removal tools
  • Sheet metal cutters
  • Signal leakage detectors
  • Signal level meters
  • Soldering irons
  • Staple guns
  • Strap guns
  • Syringes
  • Tampers
  • Tone generators
  • Tone sets
  • Tone tracers
  • Torpedo levels
  • Trenchers
  • Two way radios
  • Volt-ohm meters VOM
  • Winch trucks
  • Wire lug crimping tools
  • Wire wrap guns
  • Wireless access points WAP

Technology Skills required for Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairer

  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Cisco IOS
  • Customer relationship management CRM software
  • Email software
  • Mapcom systems M4
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Word
  • Operating system software
  • Ping tools
  • Slack
  • Voice over internet protocol VoIP system software
  • Web browser software
  • Workforce management system software