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Job opportunities exist in varied areas of marketing, maintenance, accounts, software development, hardware manufacturing, besides basic cellular operations. Since leading Indian business houses like Tata, Reliance, Birla, Essar, and major global players like Nokia, Bell, AT&T, Motorola, Ericsson, having entered the cellular field, the jobs are likely to be attractive in term of remuneration and quality. In India most of the cell phone operators are working on European GSM standards wherein communication is through satellites between far-off places and microwave towers between cities. The other standard that has recently been introduced is WLL or Wireless on Local Loop. WLL provide wireless communication in a radius of 20 to 25 km from the base station. The call tariff is extremely low compared to the standard mobile services and is highly successful in remote villages and large cities. Organisations like Hughes Telecom, Lucent, Reliance Telecom, Shyam Telecom, are presently in the process of implementing WLL cellular services, in different states. The WLL standards are based on technologies like CDMA, CorDECT and TDMA. The WLL-based services have been successfully implemented in few villages of Andhra Pradesh on CorDECT technique. Those interested in pursuing a career in cellular telecommunication industry should possess competence and qualification in the respective application areas. The increased competition has forced many cellular providers to improve their quality and enhance the number of utilities. Thus demand exists in abundance for software engineers, who can create specific programs for telecom applications. Similarly, hardware manufacturers are employing designers and engineers for developing handsets and servers that provide more application in a single unit thereby giving more value to money. Professionals are also required in the maintenance and after-sales services of mobile handsets and telecom equipment. Companies like Nokia and Ericsson are training and recruiting sizeable number of engineers at different locations throughout the country to provide prompt and efficient services. Because of number of operators in each sector, almost all cellular companies like Essar, Ushaphone, Airtel, Escotel, besides others, employ a marketing team for the sales promotion, pre-sale activities and service assistance. The cellular companies also employ accounts and finance executives for billing, payment collection and activities related to taxation, duties and legal formalities. A person can start working as a project engineer or business development executive and may rise in the hierarchy to the level of manager or even GM in the companies. They are required to handle GSM or CDMA projects that are undertaken by the organisation for respective clients. For example, companies like Motorola India and Siemens have undertaken several turnkey cellular projects for clients like Reliance, Essar, BPL and Bharti Telnet. The project and business development executives are required to negotiate terms and contract agreement with their clients for setting up the basic infrastructure. Professionals in the cellular companies are also needed to establish software for implementing and managing projects and to work for optimising company revenues by developing cost substitutes for imported or expensive raw material. The project executives work in the setting up and maintenance of cellular-base stations and mobile switch centres at various locations. They also work in coordination with the product manager and pricing manager for achieving sales budget and to establish pricing strategies. Professionals in cellular companies are also responsible for negotiating contracts and terms with government departments and client organisations. They have to be aware of various specifications related to telecommunication, micro-towers, and exchange switches. They are required to plan, design and implement projects within specified time and budgeted costs. While the prospect exists mostly for electrical, electronics or software engineers, equal opportunity is present for MBA, MCA, CA or graduates with proficiency in programming and computing languages like Java, Unix, C++. A person desirous of working in cellular telecom industry must have excellent communication skills. He should be able to handle independent projects in different environmental conditions. One must be fully aware of different wireless systems and technologies like TDMA, CDMA, WLL, WAP and should have full orientation towards working in projects. Proficiency in Java is an added advantage for those who want to take up career as project or telecom software professional. The vacancy also exists for call operators for providing assistance and help to the mobile phone user. These are mostly women and are graduates or MBA. A majority of population in the countries like the USA, UK, Canada, is utilising cellular services as frequently as they use fixed phones. This has not only reduced call tariff but has also led to development of instruments with additional features. Companies like Alcatel, Philips, Samsung, Panasonic and Motorola are developing cell phones that incorporate features that might altogether replace notebook or palmtop PCs. These cell phones will not only help in communication but shall provide basic computing and Internet services too. Indian cellular industry is equally developed, at par with the international standards, mainly due to the presence of leading multinationals (MNCs) and qualified telecom professionals in India. Vast opportunities exist for engineers in the field of projects, maintenance and software development not only in India but also around the world due to global presence of most of the MNCs. A person once experienced can easily get absorbed at a higher pay in any one of the rival organisations. Also a project executive, while implementing a project, can get absorbed by the client organisation on attractive packages. Though most of the engineering institutes and universities provide curriculum on telecommunication, there are still not many specific courses for mobile or cellular technology. Most of the hardware manufacturing or software firms provide in house on-the-job training to their employees. Some of the candidates are taken to the headquarters of the firms at Sweden, Finland or Germany and are given extensive training on product design, application and operations. Since the mobile or cellular telecom
industry is growing at an extremely fast pace, career growth for those
who enter this field now are tremendous. A professional shall not only
be earning a handsome pay package but will also be exposed to the latest
as well as the best management and technological practices. |
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