Telecom equipment installers
Official title Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers (SOC 49-2022)
Also called Telecom technician, Telecommunications technician, Broadband technician, Central office technician, Field technician
In brief
In May 2025, BLS counted 140,920 US telecom equipment installers, with median pay of $63,890 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2003, the highest was 233,690, in May 2017. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 15,000 from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for telecom equipment installers: VoIP, fiber-to-the-home, and IP-PBX, 2005 to 2018.
What the sources say
Official outlook
BLS projects employment to decline 3.3% from 2025 to 2035.
AI exposure studies
- 20.3% of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. Eloundou and others, 2023
Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.
Last updated .
Cite this page
Future History. (2026, October 11). Telecom equipment installers: jobs and pay since 1900 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/49-2022
Future History. "Telecom equipment installers: jobs and pay since 1900." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/49-2022.
@misc{futurehistory_49_2022, author = {{Future History}}, title = {Telecom equipment installers: jobs and pay since 1900}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/49-2022}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }
The access date is today's date on your device.
≈ $62,252 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)
January 28, 1878: the world's first commercial telephone exchange opens in New Haven, Connecticut, operated by the District Telephone Company of New Haven with 21 subscribers. Within days of opening, dedicated installation and maintenance workers were needed to run new subscriber lines and keep the central office equipment operational. Bell licensees across US cities employed the first telephone installers from this year forward.
AT&T begins rolling out dial telephone technology across the Bell System, replacing human switchboard operators with electromechanical step-by-step switches. Feigenbaum and Gross (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024) describe the 1920 to 1940 conversion as one of the largest automation investments in modern history, replacing operators with mechanical switching in over half of the US telephone network. They note that it raised demand for technicians to maintain the automatic equipment, but those technicians were nearly all men and too few to offset the operator jobs lost; displaced operators did not move into this work.
By 1974, AT&T had approximately one million employees, making it the largest private employer in the United States and representing more than 1% of the US labor force. Craft workers (installers, repairers, central office technicians, cable splicers) represented the largest single employment category within the Bell System. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) represented most of these workers, providing wages substantially above the national median and comprehensive benefits.
January 1, 1984: the Bell System dissolves as mandated by the US Department of Justice consent decree (United States v. AT&T). Seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) are created. All premise equipment and installers are transferred to AT&T's new competitive subsidiary (American Bell), which grew from approximately 1,000 to 100,000 employees overnight. The divestiture ends a century of single-employer craft employment for telephone installers and repairers, beginning a decades-long transition to competitive, often non-union employment structures that EPI later documented as a driver of wage stagnation for this workforce.
The dot-com bust and the collapse of several major competitive carriers (WorldCom filed for bankruptcy in 2002; Global Crossing in 2002; NorthPoint Communications in 2001) caused a severe contraction in telecommunications employment. The late 1990s broadband hiring surge reversed sharply: industry observers documented the loss of tens of thousands of telecom technician positions between 2001 and 2003. EPI's 2020 report notes that total telecommunications employment dropped below one million workers and continued to fall through the 2010s. This bust established the long-term declining trend in 49-2022 headcount.
EPI documents that by 2016-2019, total US telecommunications employment had fallen below 900,000 workers, representing only 0.6% of national employment. The lowest-wage telecommunications workers saw real wages fall 0.3% annually since the 1970s; median telecom worker wages increased only 0.4% annually compared with 1.8% annual productivity growth over the same period. The wage stagnation is attributed to fissuring (subcontracting layers) and declining unionization rather than declining productivity, as the average educational attainment of the telecom workforce had risen substantially.
Nokia launches Agentic AI for Home and Broadband Networks on May 12, 2026, covering its Altiplano (access network management), Corteca (connected home), and Broadband Easy (field operations) platforms. The launch brings AI-powered field guidance to FTTH installation surveys, computer vision quality validation, and AI-driven fault detection that qualifies incidents within 5 minutes. Nokia targets a 50% reduction in field return visits, drawing on insights from 600 million broadband lines deployed globally. This is the first vendor announcement at scale to describe agentic AI tools specifically designed to augment the work of the SOC 49-2022 field technician.
Will AI replace telecom equipment installers? What the research says
Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.
Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.
What's changing day to day for telecom equipment installers
Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.
AI is sitting alongside you hereManage daily job queue via AI-dispatch platform (Salesforce Agentforce or ETI Field Service): review AI-assigned work orders ordered by skill match, location, and SLA priority
Manage daily job queue via AI-dispatch platform (Salesforce Agentforce or ETI Field Service): review AI-assigned work orders ordered by skill match, location, and SLA priority; log job outcomes and time entries that feed back into the scheduling model; communicate real-time status updates to the dispatch center.[4],[6]
Feed the dispatch system accurate job notes and time logs -- AI dispatch quality is only as good as the completion data it learns from. Technicians with consistent, detailed close-out records become the algorithm's preferred match for higher-priority (and higher-paid) jobs.
AI is sitting alongside you hereUse AI-guided installation and survey tools (Nokia Broadband Easy agentic AI) during FTTH fiber-to-the-home surveys and equipment installation: follow AI text, voice, and image prompts to verify work quality against spec, capture computer-vision-validated evidence of completed steps, and flag deviations for immediate correction to avoid return visits.
Use AI-guided installation and survey tools (Nokia Broadband Easy agentic AI) during FTTH fiber-to-the-home surveys and equipment installation: follow AI text, voice, and image prompts to verify work quality against spec, capture computer-vision-validated evidence of completed steps, and flag deviations for immediate correction to avoid return visits.[3]
Nokia's computer vision validates your work quality in real time -- use that feedback loop to improve first-time-right rates, which are the direct metric operators use for scheduling bonus pay. Techs with consistently high first-time-right scores in AI-validated platforms are dispatched more frequently and earn more per period.
AI is sitting alongside you hereDiagnose telecommunications equipment faults by interpreting AI-generated diagnostic alerts (Nokia Automated Diagnostics, ETI Alert Suggestions) alongside direct test-meter and circuit-diagram verification
Diagnose telecommunications equipment faults by interpreting AI-generated diagnostic alerts (Nokia Automated Diagnostics, ETI Alert Suggestions) alongside direct test-meter and circuit-diagram verification; perform hands-on repair or component replacement to restore service.[3],[6]
Treat AI fault pre-qualification as prep work: arrive on-site with the diagnostic summary in hand and spend your time on root-cause confirmation and the physical fix, not on initial fault hunting. Techs who can interpret predictive-maintenance alerts and act on them quickly are the highest performers in AI-enabled dispatch environments.
Where telecom equipment installers go next
Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.
- Telecommunications Engineering SpecialistsNo timeline for this role yet
- Network and Computer Systems Administrators
- US median pay
- $99,130 (May 2025)
- BLS outlook 2025-35
- -4.1%
What each move takes
Telecommunications Engineering Specialists
Experienced telecommunications equipment technicians who have worked in central offices already understand the physical and logical layers of IP, VoIP, and fiber-optic networks. The gap to a Telecommunications Engineering Specialist role is credentials and design methodology: engineers plan network topology, write network design documents, interpret RF propagation models for wireless, and conduct capacity planning at a project scale. A CCNA followed by CCNP (Routing and Switching or Collaboration) is the practical entry point; a bachelor's in telecommunications or network engineering unlocks the full transition. The field experience with real equipment is a genuine advantage over fresh graduates.
How has the work of telecom equipment installers changed since 1878?
The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.
Manual test sets, galvanometers, and hand tools (telephone pioneer era)
The first telephone installers worked with hand tools, voltmeters, and purpose-built telephone test sets to verify line continuity and sound quality. There was no standardized diagnostic equipment: technicians developed craft knowledge by listening to line quality and interpreting the behavior of the equipment they installed. Bell System Practices, the internal technical standards library AT&T began publishing in this era, documented the proper methods for installing, testing, and repairing telephone equipment and became the backbone of craft training for decades.
Standardized craft training and test boards (Bell System discipline era)
AT&T's Bell System Practices manuals formalized craft standards across all operating companies, creating a unified training system for central office technicians and inside plant workers. Test boards, butt sets, and standardized wiring color codes allowed technicians to move between assignments and geographic territories. The mechanization of the switching function (1920-1940 dial telephone rollout) paradoxically increased demand for inside technicians: mechanical step-by-step switches and later crossbar switches required skilled maintenance that manual switchboards, operated by human operators, did not.
Effect on the workFeigenbaum and Gross (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024) find that AT&T's 1920 to 1940 move to mechanical switching eliminated most telephone operator jobs, yet did not reduce later cohorts' overall employment: growth in middle-skill clerical jobs and lower-skill service jobs offset the decline. Incumbent operators were hit hardest and a decade later were more likely to be in lower-paying jobs or out of work. The paper notes that dial switching also raised demand for technicians to maintain the automatic equipment, but that this group was nearly all male and too small to offset the operator jobs lost; it was not where the displaced operators went.
Electronic switching systems (AT&T 1ESS, 4ESS, and digital PBX)
AT&T's introduction of the 1ESS (Electronic Switching System) in 1965 began the transition from electromechanical to stored-program-controlled switching. Central office technicians had to learn software-defined diagnostics alongside traditional circuit-board work: for the first time, faults could originate in software, not just hardware. The digital PBX boom of the 1970s (Rolm, Northern Telecom, AT&T Dimension) brought complex customer-premises equipment into office buildings and required a new generation of on-site technicians who understood both telecommunications and data networking. The craft grew in technical sophistication throughout this period.
Post-divestiture competitive market (Baby Bell era, CLEC formation)
The January 1, 1984 breakup of the Bell System dissolved the single-employer craft model that had governed this occupation for a century. Technicians who had worked under Bell System union contracts (CWA, IBEW) were redistributed across seven Regional Bell Operating Companies and AT&T's new competitive businesses. American Bell inherited all premise equipment and installers overnight. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 further opened local phone markets to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), spawning a new generation of non-union telecom employers and contractor-based installation models that EPI later identified as a primary driver of wage stagnation in the field.
Effect on the workEPI (2020) identifies fissuring and the long-term decline in unionization as central causes of wage suppression in telecommunications after divestiture. The shift from Bell System union contracts to competitive-carrier and contractor employment structures reduced the wage floor for installation and repair work over the following two decades.
DSL, T1, and broadband boom (dot-com installation surge)
The DSL rollout of the late 1990s drove the largest hiring surge in this occupation since the Bell System expansion. Asymmetric DSL required a splitter installed by a technician at the customer premises; T1 lines for small businesses required professional installation and circuit testing. The broadband boom of 1997-2001 created intense demand for field technicians across incumbent carriers (RBOC DSL) and competitive CLECs (Covad, NorthPoint, Rhythms). When the dot-com bust hit in 2001 and telecom carriers collapsed (WorldCom, Global Crossing), employment fell sharply: industry observers estimated a loss of tens of thousands of telecom technician positions between 2001 and 2003 across the sector.
Effect on the workEPI (2020) documents that total telecommunications employment declined significantly in the early 2000s following the dot-com bust. The boom-bust cycle of 1997-2003 remains the most dramatic employment swing in modern telecommunications technician history.
VoIP, fiber-to-the-home, and IP-PBX (protocol transition era)
The shift from circuit-switched telephony to Voice over IP fundamentally changed the technical skill set required of inside plant technicians. Installing a VoIP system required understanding of LAN switching, QoS policy, SIP trunk configuration, and network jitter -- skills that had previously been the domain of IT, not telecom craft workers. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments by Verizon FiOS (launched 2004) and AT&T U-verse created demand for fiber splicing and optical power measurement skills alongside traditional copper skills. Technicians who adapted to the IP layer commanded higher wages and broader job eligibility; those who did not found their copper expertise increasingly specialized to a shrinking legacy install base.
AI-assisted diagnostics, dispatch, and field guidance (Nokia Agentic AI, Salesforce Agentforce)
AI diagnostic and dispatch tools began reshaping the daily workflow of telecommunications equipment technicians from 2018 onward, with a sharp acceleration in 2024-2026. Nokia's May 2026 launch of Agentic AI for broadband networks (Altiplano, Corteca, and Broadband Easy platforms) brought AI-powered fault detection, root-cause analysis, and field-guidance tools (text, voice, and image) directly to field technicians during installations. Salesforce Agentforce for Field Service (GA May 2025) brought AI-driven dispatch optimization to telecom service providers. ETI Software's predictive maintenance features had been adding alert suggestions and predictive work duration tools since 2024. These tools do not replace the physical installation and repair work; they change how technicians are deployed, how faults are pre-qualified before a truck roll, and how installation quality is validated in real time.
Effect on the workNokia targets a 50% reduction in return visits from its AI field-guidance tools. BLS projects a 3% employment decline for 49-2022 from 2024 to 2034, driven primarily by the tapering of 5G and government-funded broadband expansion programs rather than direct AI displacement of field technicians.
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Browse all rolesTelecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers employment and pay by year
In other countries
The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.
Canada (NOC 72205)
- Employment, 2020
- 20,485, Statistics Canada Census 2021 Official statistic Report an errorStatistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 72205 Telecommunications equipment installation and cable television service technicians, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
- Median pay, 2020
- C$70,000, Statistics Canada Census 2021 Official statistic Report an errorStatistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 72205 Telecommunications equipment installation and cable television service technicians, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.
View all 28 years of cited US data, each linked to its source
| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 15,000 | n/a | Est., Library of Congress / US Census Bureau Researched context | Report |
| 1930 | 55,000 | n/a | Est., Wikipedia / Economic Policy Institute Researched context | Report |
| 1970 | 140,000 | $9,100 | Est., Bell System (Britannica) (employment) Researched contextEst., EPI (pay) Researched context | Report |
| 1985 | 180,000 | n/a | Est., Bell System Memorial Researched context | Report |
| 2000 | 248,000 | $40,000 | Est., EPI Researched context | Report |
| 2003 | 195,500 | $48,230 | BLS OEWS May 2003 Official statistic | Report |
| 2004 | 202,160 | $49,840 | BLS OEWS May 2004 Official statistic | Report |
| 2005 | 198,350 | $50,620 | BLS OEWS May 2005 Official statistic | Report |
| 2006 | 190,130 | $52,430 | BLS OEWS May 2006 Official statistic | Report |
| 2007 | 189,290 | $54,070 | BLS OEWS May 2007 Official statistic | Report |
| 2008 | 195,170 | $55,600 | BLS OEWS May 2008 Official statistic | Report |
| 2009 | 189,850 | $55,560 | BLS OEWS May 2009 Official statistic | Report |
| 2010 | 190,100 | $54,710 | BLS OEWS May 2010 Official statistic | Report |
| 2011 | 199,240 | $53,960 | BLS OEWS May 2011 Official statistic | Report |
| 2012 | 208,220 | $54,530 | BLS OEWS May 2012 Official statistic | Report |
| 2013 | 209,350 | $54,760 | BLS OEWS May 2013 Official statistic | Report |
| 2014 | 213,620 | $55,190 | BLS OEWS May 2014 Official statistic | Report |
| 2015 | 219,100 | $54,570 | BLS OEWS May 2015 Official statistic | Report |
| 2016 | 228,430 | $53,640 | BLS OEWS May 2016 Official statistic | Report |
| 2017 | 233,690 | $53,380 | BLS OEWS May 2017 Official statistic | Report |
| 2018 | 229,890 | $56,100 | BLS OEWS May 2018 Official statistic | Report |
| 2019 | 208,480 | $57,910 | BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statistic | Report |
| 2020 | 190,510 | $61,470 | BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statistic | Report |
| 2021 | 172,830 | $60,370 | BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statistic | Report |
| 2022 | 168,180 | $59,960 | BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statistic | Report |
| 2023 | 159,670 | $61,270 | BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statistic | Report |
| 2024 | 153,890 | $62,630 | BLS OEWS May 2024 Official statistic | Report |
| 2025 | 140,920 | $63,890 | BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statistic | Report |
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