Outside plant technician vs telephone technician

The differences between outside plant technicians and telephone technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a telephone technician has an average salary of $45,477, which is higher than the $42,451 average annual salary of an outside plant technician.

The top three skills for an outside plant technician include ladders, outside plant and CDL. The most important skills for a telephone technician are fiber optic, phone system, and PBX.

Outside plant technician vs telephone technician overview

	Outside Plant Technician	Telephone Technician
Yearly salary	$42,451	$45,477
Hourly rate	$20.41	$21.86
Growth rate	8%	8%
Number of jobs	67,234	45,522
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 38%	Associate Degree, 36%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	-	-

Outside plant technician vs telephone technician salary

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

	Outside Plant Technician	Telephone Technician
Average salary	$42,451	$45,477
Salary range	Between $29,000 And $61,000	Between $34,000 And $59,000
Highest paying City	-	-
Highest paying state	-	-
Best paying company	-	-
Best paying industry	-	-

Differences between outside plant technician and telephone technician education

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

	Outside Plant Technician	Telephone Technician
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 38%	Associate Degree, 36%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Electrical Engineering
Most common college	Stanford University	Inter American University of Puerto Rico Bayamon

Outside plant technician vs telephone technician demographics

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

	Outside Plant Technician	Telephone Technician
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 96.8% Female, 3.2%	Male, 88.2% Female, 11.8%
Race ratio	Black 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, 11.5% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 19.0% Asian, 6.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between outside plant technician and telephone 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.

Telephone technician example responsibilities.

Implement and manage UHF radio base stations, repeaters, and command network, effectively linking all regional headquarters.
Pull CAT5 cable from workstations to closets, and connect to patch panels.
Install and terminate CAT5, CAT6 and multi-pair cabling in businesses for new or retrofit data network.
Set up MDF s and IDF's to include racks and trays, terminate both copper and fiber.
Install equipment racks, ladder racks, cable management systems along with the electronic data switches and associate hardware.
Install trunks lines, T1's switches (small and large).

Outside plant technician vs telephone technician skills

Common outside plant technician skills

Ladders, 10%
Outside Plant, 10%
CDL, 8%
Test Equipment, 6%
Safety Procedures, 6%
OSHA, 5%

Common telephone technician skills

Fiber Optic, 10%
Phone System, 9%
PBX, 7%
System Installation, 5%
Telephone Lines, 5%
Avaya, 4%

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Installation, Maintenance and Repair Industry
Outside Plant Technician
Outside Plant Technician vs Telephone Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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