Mane Product & Technology Issue 7 - July 2019 | Page 4

4 | MANE PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY | JULY 2019

Telecommunications - Industry Sector Overview

The goals of the Telecom industry is to make communications possible, whenever and wherever you are in the world. It’s incredible to think how much the world has changed thanks to technologies, and with Telecom bringing it all together. Businesses like Uber or even Google’s new game-streaming service Stadia seemed absolutely ridiculous only 5 years ago.

However there are two sides to the industry. There’s everything the users see, from broadband, mobiles to apps, and there’s the infrastructure side behind the scenes. There are so many sectors in this area including hardware manufacturers such as Cisco, Juniper and Ericsson. Service Providers such as BT, COLT, Vodafone and EE. Software companies such as Whatsapp and Skype. Google and Amazon are also big players and there are a lot of smaller innovative companies in Telecoms too.

Trends and Developments

A key topic at the moment is the rollout of 5G network. Other general IT trends are such as the cloud, data processing speeds, data breaches and security which are very relevant to telecoms.

Companies are always planning the future and the way we live and work, other hot topics for the future are AI (Artificial Intelligence), SD WAN and Blockchain.

Development often includes replacing the legacy products like Vodafone shutting down 3G within 3 years to BT with their PSTN in 7 years.

Working in Telecoms

You could work in technical sales and marketing, installation and technical support, research and development, and finance and HR. You will almost always work in a team including across departments, which includes engineering and IT, sales and customer support, projects and design.

The pace of work will depend on your employer. When service providers rolls out new technology, it’s usually gradual and measured for reliability for their customers. Smaller vendors, software companies and start-ups such as mobile apps can be very fast pace, as they are trying to launch a product as quickly as possible.

You could progress to a management or team leader position and you can even go all the way up to CEO. You could also move sideways like projects, sales, products or even recruitment / consultant. Telecom companies are always looking for the best talents to stay one head in the game.