What is a Telecom Technician?

Where would we be without telecommunications networks? These vital networks include telephones, Internet, cable, and some office equipment. Telecommunications technicians provide a critical service by making sure that these networks are operating properly. They are also responsible for planning and installing networks and troubleshooting any problems that may occur.

These technicians usually belong to an IT team and report to a manager. If you choose to pursue a career as a telecommunications technician, some of the tasks you will perform are installing and maintaining circuits and equipment, upgrading systems and components, verifying service by testing circuits and equipment, troubleshooting and repairing outages, testing network backup procedures, and updating documentation. You will also need to have a solid understanding of electronics and stay up-to-date on the latest technologies and practices.

To qualify for this position, you will need a certificate from a technical school or an Associate's degree in electronics repair or computer science.

What Does a Telecom Technician Do

There are certain skills that many telecom technicians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed color vision, dexterity and mechanical skills.

How To Become a Telecom Technician

If you're interested in becoming a telecom technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 30.9% of telecom technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.8% of telecom technicians have master's degrees. Even though some telecom technicians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Telecom Technician
Top Telecom Technician Jobs Near You

Telecom Technician Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a telecom technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as lead technician, progress to a title such as project manager and then eventually end up with the title owner.

Telecom Technician

Average Salary for a Telecom Technician

Telecom Technicians in America make an average salary of $54,352 per year or $26 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $89,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $33,000 per year.
Average Telecom Technician Salary
$54,352 Yearly
$26.13 hourly

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Roles and Types of Telecom Technician

The role of a telecom technician includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general telecom technician responsibilities:

  • Responsible for participating in promoting, improving, maintaining
  • Responds to user problems by listening, clarifying,
  • Installs, maintains, and repairs voice communications systems hardware

There are several types of telecom technician, including:

Technician

Role:

To be a technician, you have to know your stuff. Some may refer to you as an expert in your field or maybe people will know you as skilled in an art or craft. Then again, you may just be needed to look after technical equipment.

Your workload as a technician will vary, depending on what you're trained in. You may be needed to set up a new computer system or maybe you'll need to fix an electricity problem. Either way, you'll probably only need to work 40 hours a week.

The degree of education required for this job depends on what you're specific skillset is. Some technicians only need a high school diploma, others may want to complete an associate's program or earn a certificate to help their employment opportunities. There's definitely something for everyone in the field of technicians.

  • Average Salary: $38,045
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Electronics Technician

Role:

Wherever there is electricity, you will find an electronic technician. In places where there is lighting, heating, computers, machinery, or public transport, sooner or later they show up.

Electronic technicians know everything about circuits, amplifiers, resistors, switches, and regulators. They design electronic devices and components, maintain electronic systems, and install electrical equipment.

Choosing to be an electronic technician might be the best decision of your life. Electricity is magic, there is never enough of it. The amount of electricity used in the U.S. alone today is 13 times the quantity needed in 1950, and this tendency is not about to reverse anytime soon.

The average hourly pay of an electric technician is $21.31. You can do the math. If not, you might want to look for another profession, keep browsing those job posts.

  • Average Salary: $46,660
  • Degree: Associate Degree

Field Technician

Role:

If you are not the kind of person who enjoys sitting around all day in an office, you might want to consider being a field technician.

Field technicians respond to customer requests and travel to the location of the client to install equipment, repair or install machinery, or do maintenance work. They advise customers on how to correctly handle and look after the machines, and in the meantime, effortlessly create great relationships with the clients.

Thumbing their nose at regular working hours, field technicians do not make a fuss about unpredictable schedules. They are available around the clock, often even on weekends, and do not shy away from physically demanding work, either.

  • Average Salary: $37,520
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Telecom Technician Jobs

Number Of Telecom Technician Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California1,898$64,178
2Texas1,513$46,133
3Florida1,387$56,225
4New York1,178$61,670
5North Carolina1,031$56,566
6Illinois1,002$60,969
7Georgia988$49,869
8Pennsylvania846$65,052
9Virginia841$63,340
10Ohio727$58,364
11Massachusetts712$67,925
12New Jersey698$68,277
13Minnesota673$45,498
14Missouri654$54,424
15Tennessee646$53,330
16Indiana607$53,489
17Colorado584$55,594
18Maryland533$65,857
19Michigan529$61,035
20South Carolina485$52,732
21Wisconsin483$58,090
22Arizona469$50,679
23Washington455$73,491
24Alabama380$43,259
25Connecticut338$68,504
26Iowa330$55,084
27Oklahoma317$53,539
28Mississippi317$49,201
29Utah299$59,865
30Louisiana276$50,747
31Kentucky267$56,007
32Oregon266$69,064
33Maine239$61,531
34Kansas239$54,464
35Arkansas225$44,824
36Nevada189$46,055
37New Mexico183$51,470
38Nebraska178$54,822
39West Virginia152$59,642
40Montana115$64,773
41New Hampshire115$64,737
42Delaware109$56,169
43North Dakota106$67,841
44Idaho104$64,025
45Alaska97$76,473
46Vermont83$63,282
47Hawaii78$48,382
48Rhode Island67$56,124
49South Dakota64$63,870
50Wyoming54$60,317

Telecom Technician Education

Telecom Technician Majors

Electrical Engineering
24.0 %
Business
12.2 %
Electrical Engineering Technology
9.4 %

Telecom Technician Degrees

Associate

40.4 %

Bachelors

30.9 %

High School Diploma

12.3 %

Top Colleges for Telecom Technicians

1. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Bayamon

Bayamon, PR • Private

In-State Tuition

$5,940

Enrollment

4,169

2. New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, NM • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,686

Enrollment

11,139

3. Baker College

Owosso, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,800

Enrollment

8,319

4. Northeastern University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,522

Enrollment

13,760

5. National University College - Bayamon

Bayamon, PR • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,675

Enrollment

10,203

6. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

7. Arkansas State University

Jonesboro, AR • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,607

Enrollment

8,623

8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,832

Enrollment

4,550

9. New York University

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,828

Enrollment

26,339

10. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

Top Skills For a Telecom Technician

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 7.0% of telecom technicians listed fiber optic cables on their resume, but soft skills such as color vision and dexterity are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Telecom Technician Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Telecom Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Telecom Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Telecom Technician diversity

Telecom Technician Gender Distribution

Male
Male
92%
Female
Female
8%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among telecom technicians, 8.0% of them are women, while 92.0% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among telecom technicians is White, which makes up 57.4% of all telecom technicians.

  • The most common foreign language among telecom technicians is Spanish at 37.2%.

Online Courses For Telecom Technician That You May Like

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1. Introduction to Technical Support

coursera

Gain the daily work skills and knowledge you’ll need for IT Technical Support career success. This course, part of the IBM Technical Support Professional Certificate, is designed for beginners with no prior IT experience or formal degree. Get an insider’s view into IT Support work. Learn about IT Support roles and levels, the support escalation matrix, ticketing systems, common support tools, and remote support software. Then, hear about career opportunities and career pathways from...

2. Design of High-Performance Optical Systems

coursera

This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5602, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. Optical instruments are how we see the world, from corrective eyewear to medical endoscopes to cell phone cameras to orbiting telescopes. This course extends what you have learned about first-order, paraxial system design and optical resolution and efficiency with the introduction to real lenses and their imperfections. We begin with a description of how...

3. Introduction To Fiber Optic Cabling

udemy
4.4
(1,243)

Welcome! This course is designed to give you a good understand of fiber optics and fiber data transmission...

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Top Telecom Technician Employers

Most Common Employers For Telecom Technician

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Tektronix$73,935$35.5517
2Franciscan Health$66,996$32.214
3T-Mobile$62,796$30.197
4Verizon Communications$62,292$29.957
5Bank of America$56,930$27.373
6Black Box$55,034$26.467
7TEKsystems$51,298$24.6624
8IES$48,993$23.556
9AT&T$48,151$23.1517
10Comcast$47,488$22.834
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Telecom Technician Videos

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A Career in Telecommunications (JTJS82013)
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Updated April 6, 2023