Telecoms Jobs
Software engineers are an essential component of the telecoms jobs industry, not only for the development of mobile and wireless networks, but also for the development of Value Added Services (VAS) and for back end services like billing and CRM. Like in network engineering, the telecoms jobs available within the area of software engineering are also quite variable.
For example, there is a need for software developers and designers to create the software needed for each application. These can be written in different languages, depending upon the specific application and what has been specified on a contract. They will also need to be able to operate on the appropriate operating systems. The most commonly used are Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux/Red Hat. However, there has been a major new entrant in to the mobile telecoms jobs space. Google have created an open platform called Android and software developers are being invited by Google to show what they can do differently, or better, using their platform for a multitude of mobile applications. When the software has been developed for the appropriate operating systems, software test engineers and quality engineers will need to check and remove bugs that can cause failure or conflict with other software programs.
In order to make the whole thing work, hardware engineers are also needed and can take the form of industrial designers who will work to a marketing brief in the design and development of a handset, but within parameters set by engineering, in order to ensure functionality is not over-ridden by form. The components used to make up networks and handsets are designed and manufactured by specialists in their own field. A key area here would be semiconductors. Telecoms jobs in semiconductors are also highly diverse, from research and development engineers through to quality, testing, manufacture, planning and logistics. The semiconductor industry make the microchips that enable data to be processed and for software to function. In mobile telecoms, semiconductor chips would be made for handset functionality, like Bluetooth chip sets for example.
Value Added Services are essentially a whole range of new applications for the telecoms jobs sector that are being developed by many small and medium sized businesses. They are looking to work in partnership with network operators in the delivery of services but will ultimately help the networks achieve their goals in terms of incremental revenue, profit, attracting new users and helping to reduce churn. Key initiatives here include mobile internet and mobile TV. Bandwidth, scalability and quality of service are all key in the successful delivery of mobile services.
At OFTEL and other European government controlled establishments you will find regulatory telecoms jobs, health and safety jobs and legislative jobs, since they are responsible for the management of radio frequency, or RF. They have traditionally allocated frequencies for different tasks on a fairly ad hoc basis over the years, but as new applications hungry for bandwidth emerge, they have had to shift different applications around, like analogue radio, for example, in order to accommodate digital applications including 3G and digital TV.
