Phone technician vs outside plant technician

The differences between phone technicians and outside plant technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a phone technician has an average salary of $42,690, which is higher than the $42,451 average annual salary of an outside plant technician.

The top three skills for a phone technician include customer service, cell phones and phone system. The most important skills for an outside plant technician are ladders, outside plant, and CDL.

Phone technician vs outside plant technician overview

	Phone Technician	Outside Plant Technician
Yearly salary	$42,690	$42,451
Hourly rate	$20.52	$20.41
Growth rate	8%	8%
Number of jobs	41,324	67,234
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 35%	Associate Degree, 38%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	-	-

Phone technician vs outside plant technician salary

Phone technicians and outside plant technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Phone Technician	Outside Plant Technician
Average salary	$42,690	$42,451
Salary range	Between $31,000 And $58,000	Between $29,000 And $61,000
Highest paying City	-	-
Highest paying state	-	-
Best paying company	-	-
Best paying industry	-	-

Differences between phone technician and outside plant technician education

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

	Phone Technician	Outside Plant Technician
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 35%	Associate Degree, 38%
Most common major	Business	Electrical Engineering
Most common college	New York University	Stanford University

Phone technician vs outside plant technician demographics

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

	Phone Technician	Outside Plant Technician
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 77.3% Female, 22.7%	Male, 96.8% Female, 3.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 11.7% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 18.7% Asian, 6.3% White, 57.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	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%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between phone technician and outside plant technician duties and responsibilities

Phone technician example responsibilities.

Manage telecommunications installation and repair for hospital Nortel network.
Repair LCD and programming on various computers
Used POS system to determine which repair needs to be start.
Coordinate the maintenance and repair of T1's and associate electronic equipment.
Resolve DXU hardware problems and BS fault alarms with Ericsson OMT software.
Activate phones, run tests on the phones, and reprogram the phones.

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.

Phone technician vs outside plant technician skills

Common phone technician skills

Customer Service, 22%
Cell Phones, 7%
Phone System, 7%
VoIP, 5%
Windows, 4%
Cellular Devices, 4%

Common outside plant technician skills

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

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Phone Technician
Phone Technician vs Outside Plant Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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