Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers Salary

Bureau of Labor Statistics title: Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers

The median telecommunications equipment installers and repairers salary in the United States is $63,890 per year ($30.72/hour). Salaries range from $44,240 at the entry level to $96,730+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 140,920 telecommunications equipment installers and repairers jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to decline 4.2% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 Β· Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary
$63,890
per year
Hourly Rate
$30.72
per hour
Employment
140,920
jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile
$44,240
25th percentile
$51,830
Median
$63,890
75th percentile
$81,690
90th percentile
$96,730

Job Growth (2024-2034)

-4.2%
Decline

Annual Openings

13,200
jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

Postsecondary nondegree award

Training Needed

Moderate-term on-the-job training

Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for telecommunications equipment installers and repairerss.

Telecom equipment installers and repairers (central-office techs, PBX / VoIP techs, RF / cell-site techs, fiber splicers, headend techs) install, test, and repair the switching, transport, and radio gear that carries voice, data, and video over the phone and cable networks. Not to be confused with outside-plant line installers β€” this role works inside COs, MDFs / IDFs, cell shelters, headends, and customer premises. BLS median $63,890; entry (p10) $44,240; top (p90) $96,730; ~140,920 employed nationally. Union carriers (AT&T CWA, Verizon IBEW) run 15-25% above non-union with defined-benefit pensions still on the table.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Central-office / MSC switch fluency
DMS-100, 5ESS legacy switches phasing out, Nokia / Ericsson softswitches, and IMS core replacing them. Read wiring lists, MDF cross-connects, and DS0 / DS1 / DS3 signal paths cold.
IP / VoIP / SIP signaling
SIP trunking, MGCP, H.323 legacy, RTP media flows. Wireshark packet captures to isolate one-way audio, jitter, and codec mismatches on Cisco CUCM, Avaya Aura, Mitel MiVoice, and Ribbon SBCs.
Fiber optic termination & OTDR testing
Fusion splice with Fujikura or Sumitomo splicers, hit under 0.1 dB loss on singlemode splices, run OTDR shots and interpret traces for reflectance, macrobends, and dirty connectors. SC / LC / MPO connectorization.
Cellular RF / cell-site work
Install and commission Ericsson AIR / Nokia AirScale radios, RRUs, and MIMO antennas. Sweep coax with Anritsu Site Master, verify VSWR under 1.5:1, PIM testing under -150 dBc, and tower climb certification (Comtrain, CTA STAR) if you go to heights.
Power & grounding (–48 VDC + AC)
BDFB / BDCBB bays, batteries, rectifiers, generators, ATS. Motorola R56 and NEBS grounding standards. Wrong ground = intermittent alarms and outages that take weeks to find.
Test equipment fluency
Fluke DSX cable analyzers, EXFO / VIAVI OTDRs, Anritsu / Rohde spectrum analyzers, T-BERD / MTS for E1/T1/OC-N, power meters, VoIP test sets. Own your toolkit β€” it distinguishes senior techs from apprentices.
NMS / OSS ticketing
Read work orders from Granite, Netcracker, or Amdocs; close tickets in Remedy / ServiceNow with accurate closeout notes. Sloppy closeouts trigger truck-rolls and blow productivity metrics.
Safety & compliance (OSHA + RF)
OSHA 10 / 30, RF safety awareness (FCC MPE limits), confined-space entry for manholes, lockout-tagout on power, fall protection at heights. Zero-incident performance is a promotion signal.

How to Become a Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers

  1. 1
    Complete high school + a 1-2 year telecom / electronics program
    Community college AAS in telecom, electronics, or fiber optics is the standard path. Programs at ITT-legacy schools, Lincoln Tech, and community colleges (e.g., Community College of Baltimore County, Lansing CC) run $6-18k. Military electronics MOS (25B, 6800, 4A0X1) counts double.
  2. 2
    Earn baseline certifications
    BICSI Installer 1 ($350) is the industry entry ticket. Add FOA CFOT ($400) for fiber, iNARTE Telecommunications Engineer for wireless, and Cisco CCNA if the employer is IP-heavy. Total out-of-pocket $1-2k before any employer reimburses.
  3. 3
    Land an apprentice / helper role at a carrier or contractor
    AT&T (CWA), Verizon (IBEW), T-Mobile, Comcast/Xfinity, Charter/Spectrum, CenturyLink/Lumen, Frontier hire directly. Contractors (MasTec, Dycom, Quanta, Black & Veatch, Ericsson Services, Nokia Field Services) also feed the industry. Apprentice pay $18-24/hr non-union, $22-28/hr union.
  4. 4
    Get on a specialty track: CO / DC / cell / fiber / VoIP
    The commodity work (residential install) doesn't pay past $65k. Specialize in central-office switch, cellular RF, fiber splicing, or enterprise VoIP and pay jumps to $75-95k in 3-5 years. Tower climb + RF specialty pays the top end.
  5. 5
    Advance to Sr Tech β†’ Lead β†’ Supervisor / Field Manager
    Sr techs at $80-95k run complex cutovers and mentor apprentices. Field supervisors at $95-125k own crew productivity, safety, and P&L for a market. Some techs move into vendor field-engineering roles (Ericsson, Nokia) at $100-140k with more travel.

Career Progression

Apprentice / Helper Tech
0-2 yrs$44,240-$52,000 ($21-25/hr)
  • β€’Assist journey techs on installs, cutovers, and repairs
  • β€’Pull and dress cable, label terminations, stage equipment
  • β€’Log tickets in Granite / ServiceNow; document as-built drawings
  • β€’Complete BICSI Installer 1, OSHA 10, and vendor certs during first 24 months
Next: Journey Tech at 2-3 years after completing apprenticeship or accumulating hours.
Journey / Field Tech
2-6 yrs$55,000-$72,000 ($26-35/hr) + OT
  • β€’Install, test, and turn up CO equipment, PBX / VoIP systems, and fiber terminations independently
  • β€’Troubleshoot Layer 1-3 issues, isolate faults to cable / card / config
  • β€’Cover on-call rotation for outages; meet MTTR SLAs
  • β€’Mentor apprentices on job sites
Next: Sr Tech or specialty track (RF / fiber / VoIP) at 5-8 years.
Sr Tech / Specialist (CO / RF / Fiber / VoIP)
5-12 yrs$72,000-$96,730 ($35-46/hr) + OT + on-call premium
  • β€’Lead complex cutovers, cell-site commissioning, and switch migrations
  • β€’Own vendor escalations with Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco, Ribbon, Adtran
  • β€’Interpret OTDR traces, spectrum sweeps, and packet captures for root-cause analysis
  • β€’Own test-plan design for new market launches and site acceptance
Next: Lead Tech / Field Supervisor at 8-15 years, or vendor field engineer.
Lead Tech / Field Supervisor
10-18 yrs$95,000-$125,000 salary + bonus
  • β€’Manage crews of 6-15 techs across a metro or region
  • β€’Own safety, productivity, ticket close rates, and quality metrics
  • β€’Interview / hire, discipline, and payroll approvals
  • β€’Interface with construction, network planning, and customer accounts
Next: Regional Operations Manager or vendor Field Engineering Manager at 15+ years.
Regional Operations Manager / Vendor Field Engineering Manager
15+ yrs$125,000-$165,000 salary + bonus + carrier stock or vendor RSUs
  • β€’P&L for a market or vendor field team; multi-crew, multi-contract
  • β€’Contract negotiation with carriers or MSOs; SLA and penalty exposure
  • β€’Capacity planning, hiring pipeline, safety program ownership
  • β€’Executive-level customer relationships at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile network ops
Next: VP Field Operations or move into carrier / vendor headquarters role.

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 15 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. Walk me through how you'd troubleshoot one-way audio on a SIP call.technical
Start with a Wireshark capture on the SBC or the PBX span β€” filter by the SIP call-ID, then trace the RTP streams. One-way audio almost always means media flow is being blocked in one direction: NAT traversal on the far side, ACL on a firewall, or a codec mismatch where one side is negotiating G.711 and the other G.729 with transcoding missing. Verify SDP in both INVITE and 200 OK, check the c= and m= lines against actual RTP src/dst, then walk the firewall / SBC ACLs. On Cisco CUCM I'd also check MRGL / MRG media resource groups. I close by verifying with a test call and confirming both-way audio on the captured RTP.
Q2. How do you approach a fiber splice that's showing 0.4 dB loss when spec is 0.1?technical
First, clean and re-cleave both fibers β€” 90% of high-loss splices are contamination or a bad cleave angle. I use a Sumitomo or Fujikura cleaver, target under 0.5Β° cleave angle, and inspect with a fiber scope. If the splicer's arc calibration hasn't been run today, re-run it β€” arc drift at temperature swings costs you loss. If it's still high after two re-splices, check the splicer's electrodes (they wear out around 2,500 arcs on Fujikura 90R). OTDR shot from both directions to bidirectional-average the loss is the honest number β€” a single-direction reading can be misleading on fiber-mismatch splices. If loss is real and I can't hit spec, I document, escalate, and don't sign the closeout on a bad splice.
Q3. Tell me about a difficult cutover you led.behavioral
STAR. Situation: 4,800-line PBX-to-Cisco CUCM migration at a hospital, four-hour maintenance window, zero tolerance for extended downtime (life-safety phones). Task: cutover coordinator for the field crew. Action: pre-staged all handsets with target firmware two weeks prior, ran call-flow validation on 12 sample DNs the week before, and built a rollback plan with the legacy PBX kept hot on standby. Cutover ran 3 hours 18 minutes with one issue on a fax line that we isolated to a T.38 config mismatch and resolved in 20 minutes. Result: zero clinical impact, no rollback, closeout signed at 4:12 AM. Interviewers want to hear pre-planning, rollback readiness, and calm under pressure.
Q4. What's your process on a cell-site commissioning?technical
Follow the vendor MOP verbatim β€” Ericsson AIR or Nokia AirScale each have specific power-up and initialization sequences. Verify grounding to Motorola R56 first (ground bar, exothermic welds, ring bus continuity under 5 ohms), then power, then fiber to the baseband unit. Bring up baseband, load the software / license package, then radiate. Sweep every jumper and antenna port with an Anritsu Site Master or Rohde ZVH β€” target VSWR under 1.3:1 on cellular, 1.5:1 acceptable. PIM sweep at rated power under -150 dBc. Alarms cleared in the OMC-R, integration KPIs verified with the RF engineer (RSRP, SINR, drive-test cluster). Photo evidence of every step in the closeout package β€” carriers reject sites for missing photos more often than for actual technical issues.
Q5. Why telecom? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?closer
The honest answer: telecom is one of the last skilled trades that pays six figures without a four-year degree, is essentially recession-resistant (networks don't stop), and rewards depth over hustle. I want to specialize β€” cell RF or fiber transport are the two tracks I'm weighing. In 5 years I want to be a Sr Tech or Lead Tech at a Tier-1 carrier or a vendor field engineer with Nokia or Ericsson, with a specialty certification stack (iNARTE, BICSI RCDD, or Cisco CCNP Service Provider) and enough OT-optional seniority to pick my calls. Naming a fork and a target signals that you're planning a career, not just clocking hours.

Resume Template β€” Journey Field Tech (2-6 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

Journey Field Tech (2-6 yrs)
  • β–ΈJourney telecom tech at AT&T Southwest supporting 3 central offices and 87 macro cell sites across the Dallas market; averaged 4.2 tickets/day at 94% first-call resolution.
  • β–ΈLed 22 cell-site commissionings on Ericsson AIR 6449 and Nokia AirScale in FY24; zero commissioning rejections, average site cutover 6.5 hours end-to-end.
  • β–ΈFusion-spliced 4,800+ singlemode fiber terminations at avg 0.06 dB loss; owned OTDR trace review for the market's fiber-to-the-cell (FTTC) build.
  • β–ΈBICSI Installer 2, FOA CFOT, OSHA 30, Comtrain Tower Climb, Ericsson RBS commissioning cert. $68k base + $9k OT + full CWA benefits.

What Gets You Rejected

  • βœ—Cannot read a wiring list, cable-count sheet, or MDF cross-connect record without hand-holding.
  • βœ—Sloppy closeouts / missing photos β€” the #1 reason carriers reject site acceptance and force repeat truck-rolls.
  • βœ—Won't climb (if the role requires tower work) or won't work nights / weekends for maintenance windows.
  • βœ—Overconfident on RF safety, confined-space entry, or LOTO β€” safety violations end careers, especially at union carriers.
  • βœ—No test-equipment fluency β€” cannot interpret an OTDR trace, VSWR sweep, or Wireshark capture.
  • βœ—Job-hoppy across contractors without a specialty story β€” carriers screen for depth, not resume length.

Salary Negotiation Levers

  • βœ“Union CBA (CWA at AT&T, IBEW at Verizon) locks in step raises, differentials, and pension β€” union techs run 15-25% above non-union with better benefits, but starting the conversation on individual base is limited.
  • βœ“Specialty premiums: RF / tower climb, fiber splicing, and enterprise VoIP each add $4-10/hr over generalist rate.
  • βœ“On-call and shift differentials: night shift 10-15%, on-call standby $2-5/hr with call-out minimums of 4 hours at 1.5x. Never accept an on-call rotation without differential in writing.
  • βœ“Overtime is real money: BLS median $63,890 doesn't capture OT. Cutover-heavy techs pull 300-600 OT hours/year; a $30/hr base tech nets $75-85k with realistic OT.
  • βœ“Vendor field engineer roles (Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco) trade lower OT for higher base ($95-130k), better benefits, and travel per diems. Ask for the mix that matches your life stage.
  • βœ“Tool allowance ($500-2,000/yr) and boot / uniform allowance are non-obvious asks that add up. Always ask.
  • βœ“Certification reimbursement β€” BICSI, FOA, iNARTE, Cisco. Carriers reimburse; contractors often don't. Negotiate at hire.

Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers Resume Review β€” $29

Personalized resume review from someone who has hired telecommunications equipment installers and repairerss. Purchase, email your resume to support@weblabra.com, and receive detailed written feedback within 7 days.

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  • βœ“ Missing skills / keywords flagged
  • βœ“ Formatting + ATS-readability feedback
  • βœ“ 7-day turnaround, 100% refund if we miss it

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Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) β†’

Salary Map β€” Click a state for details

$50K
$96Kβ–  No data

Top Paying States

Alaska
$96K
+50%
North Dakota
$91K
+42%
New Hampshire
$85K
+33%
Vermont
$82K
+28%
Louisiana
$80K
+26%
Hawaii
$79K
+24%
New Jersey
$78K
+22%
Washington
$78K
+21%
California
$77K
+20%
Massachusetts
$77K
+20%
Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.
StateMedianvs. National
Alaska$95,850+50.0%
North Dakota$90,890+42.3%
New Hampshire$85,240+33.4%
Vermont$81,800+28.0%
Louisiana$80,210+25.5%
Hawaii$79,250+24.0%
New Jersey$78,000+22.1%
Washington$77,610+21.5%
California$76,630+19.9%
Massachusetts$76,500+19.7%
1–10 of 51

Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers Salary by Metro Area

Metro AreaMedianvs. National
Anchorage, AK$101,020+58.1%
Fairbanks-College, AK$97,860+53.2%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA$92,290+44.5%
Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA$90,690+41.9%
Rome, GA$89,650+40.3%
El Centro, CA$89,600+40.2%
Bismarck, ND$89,260+39.7%
Kahului-Wailuku, HI$89,140+39.5%
Grand Forks, ND-MN$88,820+39.0%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$87,950+37.7%
1–10 of 325
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.
How does this compare to pro athletes?
A telecommunications equipment installers and repairers earning $63,890/year would need 933 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 1002 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.
See all sports & celebrity salaries β†’
πŸ“ˆ See how telecommunications equipment installers and repairers salaries have changed over the past decade.
View Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers salary trend (2011–2024) β†’