ACTUALLY we just went through what the company calls a surplus where they indicated that we were over headcount for the area. The amount of work we have is cyclic so some of the year we're overencumbered and some of the year we're scrambling to find things to do with a tiny bit of time between the two where it's just right. Since 2014 we went from 12 guys on the team to just six before the surplus, we're currently down to five thanks to the forced headcount reduction.

that sucks

esp. as then suddenly they'll hire unexperienced people when there is more work to do

So five guys (yup all dudes in this market but I've heard there's a female tech that uh...never actually comes in to work as she's constantly off for FMLA stuff) for this whole county and three guys for the next county up

so do they give you aid from teams from other areas around your county in general?

if there is less to do there etc.

No, they haven't hired anyone in this company specifically for this job since...heck when was that. 2001, maybe? They've been gritting their teeth trying to get rid of this job title for ages

yeah so they are sort of wearing down everything

And yes, sometimes 'loaners' come in from other markets when they run out of work

they see it as an established market with not much growth to come, so they'll just try to take out as much money as they can for each year

I mean in the end a telco is a property business (owning the tubes with your telco cables), and you guys are the janitors 😄 (no offense)

They could drop a TINY bit of money and upgrade our fiber fed Xboxes to full VRADs...push that internet signal farther out

:/

Oh, no you're absolutely correct...janitors, though. I like it. One of my coworkers called us certified turd polishers

that reminds me

you heard that US politician calling the interent "a series of tubes"

he was ridiculed for that, but I think it is kind of true, the largest cost is actually laying the tubes that the cables go into

I really just avoid a lot of the governmenty things...those guys are on a separate level and way out of touch

then the next big cost factor is the actual cables, and then far behind in cost comes the electronic devices like DSLAMs and routers etc.

ah yes

`A series of tubes" is a phrase coined originally as an analogy by then-United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) `

We have a LOT of trouble between closures and the company is extremely resistant to cable replacement because of the iternal rate of return in areas that don't have internet service

They've essentially told us that they're done replacing our cables and if we need to bypass anything we need to consider aerial service wires and as a last resort buried service wire

Yeah...DROPS in lieu of actual cable. The most advanced network in the nation is held together by drop wire and hopes and dreams

ok, that fits what I said earlier then, they see it as cash cow, they just want to take out as much money as they can and let it detoriate

you guys also lay fiber?

I mean you have to really, right?

We have fiber here but it's not for residential use. it's mostly business fiber and what runs the internet service

you'll probably have to lay some more for the 5G base stations

That part was done earlier this year, tbh. We've got fiber to the towers and we're adding more towers to the area but they haven't turned up 5G yet

your company also pretends to be a "tech" company like so many telcos do?

Naturally!

lol

They claim to be whatever they want as it suits them and we're just caught in the middle. There's a LOT of people 'above' (I actually make more than most first level mgrs) my pay grade working hard to justify their jobs...the tech expectations is a 16 page document stuffed to the brim with farts and whimsy that frequently contradicts itself.

would seem fairly simply, look what the big manufacturers like Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia etc. have to offer, do a market analysis of how many people you can cover and what demography lives there for an indicator of their interest in increased service performance, then depending on that you buy the stuff or not, and have the janitors do the cabling, plus some IT or telco engineer set up device configuration according to the manufacturers manuals, though I'm a lay person so what do I know 🤷

Oh hell NAW! You're trying to use logic and reason. We're talking about a corporation here, my man!

I guess you guys have some expensive equipment in the field

like for reading the eye diagram of the digital transmissions

those are usually costly

Not really in this market...the vast majority of our Xboxes are just big copper splice points...that's about it.

I mean we do have a good number of pair gain systems but they ONLY push phone through them