Telecom Mania in USA !!! Contd....

At the onset let me thank everyone who visited my first blog and encouraged me to write some more pathetic stuff with which I can bore you guys to deathJ. Anyways moving forward since I had promised a detailed blog on the courses in telecom at the US Universities here I am with what I think. Request anyone reading this blog that this is just my personal thought process which I am forwarding to guys. In telecom parlance you guys can drop my packet if you want to……. So let’s get started. I am concentrating my BLOG to the 3 topmost University offerings in telecom (according to me) and will take on or research and let you guys know more, in case any futuristic telecommunications buff is interested…..

1) ITP: Let’s start with my favorite and the one which I wanted to join dearly. CU BOULDER. It’s a very good course interdisciplinary course w.r.t telecom and is more focused on the networking aspects of telecom ( by networking I mean more of routing, switching etc etc).The course structure is very well defined from the Point of View of Network Engineers, network Auditors, Pre-Sales (Global Enterprise Solutions for Carrier, Enterprise, Voice, Data) etc. I feel that if you want to work in a IP Related Background with a touch of management and policy it is a good course for you. For example a person who is working in a consultancy firm designing a RFP (Request for Proposal) needs to know all these factors. I have seen some consultant’s design some ridiculous RFP's and i don’t think they did their masters from CU-Boulder because if they did they would be better.....
For example if a person going to United States wants to work with a Good ISP like AT&T, MCI,T-Systems, Teleglobe, BT, C&W, Level-3,XO, Sprint, Fibernet,Time Warner then they should aim to work more on the Technical Aspects like IP, Managed Security , Optic Fiber communications etc... Also professional courses aside ITP like CCNA, CCNP and specially CCIP and CCSP are very imp if you would like to see yourself design the network yourself. However for ppl who would like to go in for the Consultancy role (according to me the best paid industry in the long run) one has to have more of mgmt and specially policy and law courses... For example i have a friend who did his masters Symbi and also was a CCSP. He is working in E&Y as a network security consultant and advices companies on security issues....I have been working with all the major ISP's in the world day in and day out and i don’t think they are tat What concerns me is that everyone is talking of jobs in USA and not what they want to work on. For example i am anyways better off in India with a telecom consultant role than be a network engineer at AT&T.--New York. Bottom of FormSo if u really would like to work on the Enterprise Side of Telecom ( which is the most well paid ) with companies who are ISP's then Colorado is the place for you....Just as a simple case in a Telco and in IP one can have the following jobs:-
1) Pre Sales -- Overall knowledge of a Set-up and expert is network design.
2) Project Management-- Responsible for overall Project Management,
3) IP Provisioning and IP Engineering Team.
4) Pre Sales IP Engineering Team which designs the most complex network designs and helps all the above when they get stuck. (This team has all CCIE's and CCNP's /SP's etc). And w.r.t networking I would consider someone with a good knowledge of networking if he has ateast mastered the following topics which in itself are very large topics:- Ethernet LAN’s,VLAN’s, Static and Dynamic Routing ( EIGRP,OSPF,IS-IS),MPLS,BGP, QOS and of course Access Lists). From what I learn from my fellow mates in Boulder it has the best lab w.r.t networking and truly if you are a network junkie that’s the place for you…..
2) UMCP: University of Maryland (College Park) is the University where I study and it’s one of the largest public state Universities in USA. Now If one goes by the rankings UMCP (Engineering Courses) are more highly ranked than UCB or Pittsburg. This is by far the best University when it comes to a Wireless oriented program ( I am being careful in using the word oriented) since this also like the course in Boulder is an interdisciplinary program with lots of management courses thrown in between lots of wireless and a few networking courses. The only thing that puts me off in UMCP is the fact that there are too many core courses which one really doesn’t want to pursue but has to since it’s mandatory according to the curriculum. However looking at this course and if someone has some experience in the telecom field one can easily make out it’s not a course for IP related telecom junkies...

The ENTS course as it is more popularly known in the telecom circles is more about wireless and GSM and CDMA , network planning and optimization, designs for 3-G, . The wireless courses focus on the concepts and techniques involved in wireless digital communications with emphasis on cellular and PCS systems, properties of Mobile radio channels; intersymbol interference, multipath, and fading effects; interleaving and diversity; multiple access schemes (TDMA, FDMA, CDMA, SDMA); interuser interference, traffic issues, and cell capacity; power control strategies; frequency reuse and channel assignment; handoff, paging, and location update; cell layout; introduction to cellular and PCS standards. There are a range of wireless courses namely 689A ( the course on designing and deploying PCS and cellular wireless communication systems ), 689E ( the course on CDMA) both of which are offered in FALL and 689D ( Optimization and Analysis of Wireless Systems which includes live experience through drive testing), 656 which mainly focuses on GSM and the new 689L course which has been started this year ( which focuses more on the cellular network infrastructure, its design and components). The last three are offered in Spring and like Boulder this course is very well balanced to create Telecom Managers in this space and also for the Consultancy role as i mentioned earlier. I guess Jobs could range from a Switch Engineer to a GSM Enterprise Account Manager designing and selling all GSM related products like SMS Gateway, Value Added Services like Blackberry, Enterprise Voice Based Applications, Managed Voice, Centrex, Widex, Audio Conferencing Bridges, Vehicle Tracking etc etc and the list goes on as these are the jobs one would get. I shall ask my good friends Ishwinder and Siddharth to comment more on this space cause they are much more knowledgeable than me and would be able to advice you better….

Also i would assume that one would really make a killing on the Systems Integrator Space as large organizations like Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Ericsson make a killing by selling crores of equipment to these so called Wireless Service Providers. I checked out the Lab Equipment they have in UMD and i think they really have done a great job when it comes to Wireless Space ( ill stick to wireless to avoid any confusion)...
3)TCOM UPENN: However coming to UPENN i was a little skeptical as i don’t know what would be the practical application of the same when it comes to Telecom. However when u actually look at it closely the course is not bad either...For example the core course at UPENN i.e. TCOM 500 and TCOM502 covers all the network topics one needs to do, and after that if someone follows the security path by taking electives like 551, 515 and 502 ur done with the L-1 and L-2 services from the networks point of view. Add to that some management courses and ur done.....For example if someone does a CCNA and CCSP sideways i guarantee u will have a very good security consultant or an auditors job....So my take is all the three courses students being placed in Finance Firms. Finance Firms have the most critical and large networks which takes very learned and skilled ppl from the Telecom industry. However one needs to confirm the job profile of the ppl who got placed in the finance firms and i will restrict my comments till then....
Please feel free to ask me anything and seniors and my futuristic classmates do correct me if i am wrong. In case someone is interested to reach me please leave ur question for me on the BLOG with ur email id… Till then Arios…!!!!!!!