Also called: CO Technician, Telecom Network Technician
Maintains the switches, fiber equipment and backup batteries inside the buildings where a phone and internet company's network connects.
Inside a windowless telephone building, rows of racks blink with lights. You install a new fiber card, trace a circuit that went down, and test the giant battery banks and generator that keep 911 calls working during outages.
Estimated from BLS telecommunications equipment installers and repairers.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Associate's degree (2-year), about 2 years after high school. Associate's in electronics or telecom technology, or military communications experience.
Ways in: 2-year college, Military, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Electronics Technology, Telecommunications Technology.
Shrinking (about -1% over 10 years). Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers.
Medium risk for 10 years. Software-defined networks and remote management shrink staffing in central offices; on-site hardware work persists.
Classes: Electronics CTE, Computer science, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 49-2022.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.