Telecommunications Technicians

Key Responsibilities

• Examine telephone transmission facilities to determine requirements for new or additional telephone services.
• Diagnose and correct problems from remote locations, using special switchboards to find the sources of problems.
• Inspect equipment on a regular basis to ensure proper functioning.
• Demonstrate equipment to customers and explain its use, responding to any inquiries or complaints.
• Collaborate with other workers to locate and correct malfunctions.
• Determine viability of sites through observation, and discuss site locations and construction requirements with customers.
• Climb poles and ladders, use truck-mounted booms, and enter areas such as manholes and cable vaults to install, maintain, or inspect equipment.
• Remove loose wires and other debris after work is completed.
• Review manufacturer's instructions, manuals, technical specifications, building permits, and ordinances to determine communication equipment requirements and procedures.
• Test connections to ensure that power supplies are adequate and that communications links function.
• Repair or replace faulty equipment, such as defective and damaged telephones, wires, switching system components, and associated equipment.
• Refer to manufacturers' manuals to obtain maintenance instructions pertaining to specific malfunctions.
• Designate cables available for use.
• Address special issues or situations, such as illegal or unauthorized use of equipment, or cases of electrical or acoustic shock.
• Test repaired, newly installed, or updated equipment to ensure that it functions properly and conforms to specifications, using test equipment and observation.
• Perform routine maintenance on equipment, including adjusting and lubricating components and painting worn or exposed areas.
• Route and connect cables and lines to switches, switchboard equipment, and distributing frames, using wire-wrap guns or soldering irons to connect wires to terminals.
• Run wires between components and to outside cable systems, connecting them to wires from telephone poles or underground cable accesses.
• Measure distances from landmarks to identify exact installation sites for equipment.
• Clean and maintain tools, test equipment, and motor vehicles.
• Adjust or modify equipment to enhance equipment performance or to respond to customer requests.
• Remove and replace plug-in circuit equipment.
• Provide input into the design and manufacturing of new equipment.
• Install updated software and programs that maintain existing software or provide requested features, such as time-correlated call routing.
• Remove and remake connections to change circuit layouts, following work orders or diagrams.
• Perform database verifications, using computers.
• Drive crew trucks to and from work areas.
• Clean switches and replace contact points, using vacuum hoses, solvents, and hand tools.
• Analyze test readings, computer printouts, and trouble reports to determine equipment repair needs and required repair methods.
• Assemble and install communication equipment such as data and telephone communication lines, wiring, switching equipment, wiring frames, power apparatus, computer systems, and networks.
• Dig holes or trenches as necessary for equipment installation and access.
• Program computerized switches and switchboards to provide requested features.
• Maintain computer and manual records pertaining to facilities and equipment.
• Note differences in wire and cable colors so that work can be performed correctly.
• Install telephone station equipment, such as intercommunication systems, transmitters, receivers, relays, and ringers, and related apparatus, such as coin collectors, telephone booths, and switching-key equipment.
• Request support from technical service centers when on-site procedures fail to solve installation or maintenance problems.
• Enter codes needed to correct electronic switching system programming.
• Communicate with bases, using telephones or two-way radios to receive instructions or technical advice, or to report equipment status.
• Test circuits and components of malfunctioning telecommunications equipment to isolate sources of malfunctions, using test meters, circuit diagrams, polarity probes, and other hand tools.