Telecom Industry, Trends and Job Market



In the last few years the Indian Telecom sector has experienced a tremendous growth. It is the fourth largest telecom market in the world after China, Japan and South Korea. In 2006, the sector had 160 million subscribers and its revenues stood at US$ 19.5 billion. In 2007 India achieved the distinction of having the world's lowest call rates and the fastest growth in the number of subscribers (15.31 million in 4 months). Experts say, by 2012 the Indian telecom industry is expected to reach a size of Rs. 344,921 crores and generate employment opportunities for more than 10 million people.


The Indian Telecom industry, has gone through many phases of starting with telegraphic and telephonic systems in the 19th century to telephonic communication it has expanded to using advanced technologies like GSM, CDMA, WLL to the great 3G Technology in mobile phones. According to Consultancy firm, Ernst and Young the country’s telecom sector will see investments up to US $ 25 billion over the next five years. Currently, India, which adds over six million mobile subscribers every month, has surpassed Russia to become the third largest mobile market in the world after China and the US. The total mobile subscriber base in the country is likely to reach 425 million by March 2010 with Bharti Airtel (GSM) and Reliance (CDMA and GSM) emerging as the top two mobile operators in terms of number of subscribers.


Opportunities -
The telecom sector is open for all telecom engineers or diploma holders. The important jobs offered in the sector include that of Telecom software engineer, Telecom System Solutions Engineer, Communication Engineer, Trainer, Technical Support Provider, Research Projects Supervisor and Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Engineer among others. Apart from these, there are a large number of sales and marketing, customer service and collection agents jobs available in the mobile services sector.


Trupti Vyas, an HR Consultant, has been recruiting for the Telecom sector for the last five years and she says that this is possibly the sector with the highest rate of attrition. “The rate of attrition in Telecom is even higher than in IT. It’s a sector where jobs are mushrooming by the minute and there’s a dearth of qualified people to fill them.”


Vyas, has done recruitment in the sales and marketing arena for service providers as well as technical jobs. She says that for sales and marketing entry-level executive jobs one looks at relevant job experience within the sector. “ While hiring sales executives especially for pre-paid sales jobs we look at people who have work experience in either the telecom industry or the FMCG sector, this is mainly because the dealership and distribution networks are very similar in telecom and FMCG sales.”


Graduation is the basic qualification for entry-level positions however for management positions it is a combination of work experience and an MBA, which works. “Very little recruitment for this sector is done from management schools though things have started changing,” she says. Salaries for entry level-executive positions in sales and marketing range anything between Rs. 1.5 lakhs-Rs. 3 lakhs per annum. Salaries for middle management hover in the Rs 4.5 lakhs-9 lakhs range.


Vyas feels one of the biggest challenges in this sector is the competition. “Everyday there is a new product or service being launched in the mobile services sector. Sales and marketing people have to be constantly on their toes because one never knows when the competition can steal an edge over you with a new offer. Look at the caller tunes service it just created a revolution in the mobile services sector,” she adds. A professional working in this sector needs to have great communication skills, “Not necessarily be articulate but be able to relate to the distributor\dealer in his language,” says Vyas. Be innovative and of course be aggressive which is anyway a pre-requisite for any sales jobs.
 

yogendra.jpr

New member
hi rahul....
really nice information abt telecom growth...
bt can u help me to identify opportunities in telecom industry for me
(hving 2 year exp of RF Optimization Airtel network now doing MBA in Marketing)..
i asked many ppl bt nobody satisfy me....help me brother....
 

kartik

Kartik Raichura
Staff member
telecommunication is still growing and will continue to grow.. more jobs are expected in this sector and its more safe than any of the banking jobs ;)

Though currently there are NOT many jobs available because of the meltdown, India continues to grow.. at a smaller pace though.. and same goes with telecom.. which means there will be jobs in the near future and you better be prepared to grab one :)
 

shikha.rana22

New member
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amlan

New member
Hi rahul, the information provided was really helpful.Can provide me with some informations about the critical success factors of the mobile telephony industry of india..Ineed it urgently
 
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