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Outside plant technician vs installation technician

The differences between outside plant technicians and installation technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an outside plant technician has an average salary of $42,451, which is higher than the $38,043 average annual salary of an installation technician.

The top three skills for an outside plant technician include ladders, outside plant and CDL. The most important skills for an installation technician are customer service, ladders, and hand tools.

Outside plant technician vs installation technician overview

Outside Plant TechnicianInstallation Technician
Yearly salary$42,451$38,043
Hourly rate$20.41$18.29
Growth rate8%8%
Number of jobs67,234129,534
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 38%High School Diploma, 32%
Average age4545
Years of experience--

Outside plant technician vs installation technician salary

Outside plant technicians and installation technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

Outside Plant TechnicianInstallation Technician
Average salary$42,451$38,043
Salary rangeBetween $29,000 And $61,000Between $29,000 And $49,000
Highest paying City-Seattle, WA
Highest paying state-Washington
Best paying company-Pella
Best paying industry-Finance

Differences between outside plant technician and installation technician education

There are a few differences between an outside plant technician and an installation technician in terms of educational background:

Outside Plant TechnicianInstallation Technician
Most common degreeAssociate Degree, 38%High School Diploma, 32%
Most common majorElectrical EngineeringElectrical Engineering
Most common collegeStanford UniversityNew York University

Outside plant technician vs installation technician demographics

Here are the differences between outside plant technicians' and installation technicians' demographics:

Outside Plant TechnicianInstallation Technician
Average age4545
Gender ratioMale, 96.8% Female, 3.2%Male, 95.6% Female, 4.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 14.8% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 6.2% White, 56.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%Black or African American, 12.4% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 18.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 57.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between outside plant technician and installation technician duties and responsibilities

Outside plant technician example responsibilities.

  • Manage and administer documentation of OSP fiber optic plant in support of customer projects, network planning, and municipality requirements.
  • Move and/or lift items such as ladders, tools, air tanks, cable reels, and test equipment
  • Install residential and business telephone lines, including premise CAT5 wiring and jack work.
  • Perform construction work such as digging holes, installing inner duct in various types of conduit systems and open excavations.
  • Organize projects that include open excavations, placing cables, air pipes and inner duct in various types of conduit systems.
  • Install and repair T1 and T3 systems.
  • Show more

Installation technician example responsibilities.

  • Project manage the complete installation of power and floor space of Nortel wireless switches.
  • Install, manage, and troubleshoot CAT3, CAT5, CAT6, and fiber optic infrastructures throughout the greater Tulsa area.
  • Train to build and verify customer routers, TCP/IP addresses ad gateways.
  • Inspect buildings, interpret blueprints, and laid out cable lines for telephone, internet, and cable TV.
  • Install telecommunications equipment including fire-suppression systems, switches, routers, multiplexers and cable trays.
  • Switch include 25 DMS bays , 2 PDC's and all associate cables.
  • Show more

Outside plant technician vs installation technician skills

Common outside plant technician skills
  • Ladders, 10%
  • Outside Plant, 10%
  • CDL, 8%
  • Test Equipment, 6%
  • Safety Procedures, 6%
  • OSHA, 5%
Common installation technician skills
  • Customer Service, 19%
  • Ladders, 8%
  • Hand Tools, 8%
  • Work Ethic, 7%
  • Broadband, 5%
  • GPS, 5%

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