Thank you so much for your educative reply. The motive behind my question is that I am currently studying Digital Systems and Computer Engineering. And my desire for this course is to work in Telecoms industry after graduation, then start my own after sometime. However, the job prospects I have seen so far did not include the course i am doing specifically. Hence, I am in dilemma to switch to Digital Communication and Electronics Engineering. That was why I asked for the relevance of the course to Telecoms Industry.

Hi,
Can you be more specific?
What kind of job offers are you getting? And what are you studying, undergraduate or postgrad?
I'm not very clear. Must be because I am on vacation. I seem to be rather slow today

Thanks for your willingness to help! I am currently studying BEng Digital Systems and Computer Eng. Most jobs I have come across are mainly Electrical and Electronics Eng. and Telecommunication or ICT Eng.

A good computer engineer should be savvy in electronics, I think. Maybe not the control/industrial/power electronics side, but the computer side (digital systems).
In any case, undergrad is not really relevant. Any job you get as a fresh grad will still require you to be trained, and adapting to electronics and comms should not be much of a challenge.
It's just like civil, mechanical or chemical engineers working in oil and gas. They will still be trained on the specifics of what job they are hired for. It's only at postgrad that you need to look at specialising.
Hope this has helped somewhat.

Thanks! You are the best!

AjanleKoko could you please contact me at danamipu@yahoo.com. U may find this message on many topics you always visit, please note I am not stalking you I just need to talk to you about a private matter. Thank you.

AjanleKoko I just read your answer to another person that you prefer skype and not yahoo. Here is my skype: damaros1. Thank you.

chukxy:

Thank you so much for your educative reply. The motive behind my question is that I am currently studying Digital Systems and Computer Engineering. And my desire for this course is  to work in Telecoms industry after graduation, then start my own after sometime. However, the job prospects I have seen so far did not include  the course i am doing specifically. Hence, I am  in dilemma to switch to Digital Communication and Electronics Engineering. That was why I asked for the relevance of the course to Telecoms Industry.

Chukxy, Your first degree nowadays isn't the 100% guide/rule as to where you can work. As long as it is in a related field, then there is no problem (i.e sciences etc if you want to go into telecoms) you can get into the telecoms industry. Show some interest by reading up and understanding what part of the telecoms industry you want to go into, try to get some training courses in these areas and read material that are related to this industry.

Ajanlekoko is 100% that you will be trained so not to worry as per your first degree not being exactly where you want to go. Do a lot of research and background work and start getting yourself a good understanding of the industry you want to get into and what arm of this industry.

Thanks to the internet, you have a lot of information out there. Also, you can ask to shadow someone for free (just to get some experience).

Hi,i study electrical engineering as ND n nw am doing my iT as cable tv/intercom installer bt i lov 2 be a telecom engineer.pls advice me where i shld start n whch course shld i start wit, while i continue my HND as telecom engineer.pls @all.

@silentc , thank you for your advice; I'm impressed!

Hi Telcos,
Saw this news item and i thought you guys can chew on it;


Planned Offshore Outsourcing of Nigerian Telecom Jobs to Indian nationals in India – The Ericsson GNOC India Initiative! PDF | Print | E-mail
Thursday, 08 April 2010 06:12

Sir/Madam: We wish to inform you of a secret plan to off-shore jobs hitherto performed by able and qualified Nigerians to foreign nationals in a foreign country – The Ericsson GNOC India Initiative.

This job offshore outsourcing initiative is to hit the entire Zain Managed Services NOC (Network Operations), currently managed by LM Ericsson Nigeria and under the managed services contract engaged in August 1, 2009.

For the avoidance of doubt, Outsourcing simply means, the transfer of work, responsibility, decision rights to an external subject matter expert entity. Offshore Outsourcing is a brand of outsourcing where work is transferred to countries that are of considerable distance from the client. There are obvious reasons why organizations practice offshore outsourcing, some of which include lack of requisite skills in client’s home country, cheaper labour rates, etc.

Considering all known reasons that influence offshore outsourcing, no clear reason can be said to be driving the case of Ericsson Zain Nigeria Managed Services, other than the share greed of maximizing profits, and providing employment for the teeming Indian populace at the expense of Nigerians. As a matter of fact, offshore outsourcing, as planned by Ericsson, only obtains in middle-east countries, such as Saudi Arabia. The reason being that the average Saudi national doesn’t need to work in order to get the basic necessities of life and so is not affected by Job off shoring.

In early 2009, the management of Zain Nigeria decided, as a strategic initiative, to outsource its entire technical operation across Africa. The objectives were only known to the owners of the business, whilst everyone else was told about the need for the company to remain both profitable and to provide improved services. It is on record that most countries in Africa resisted this move by Zain. The plan succeeded in Nigeria and a few others where the home governments were aloof and insensitive to the effects of implementing such plans.

Looking at one of the reasons adduced for outsourcing, it is only the owners of the business that can confirm how profitable Zain has been, since the outsourcing of its operation to Ericsson in August, 2009. The profitability of Zain Nigeria has always been a secret only known to a selected few.

Also as far as improved services are concerned, Subscribers of Zain Nigeria, who are incidentally mostly Nigerians, are in the best position to also confirm the theory of improved services being bandied.

Where Ericsson Zain Managed Services currently is:

In 2009, Zain transferred about 450 of its staff to Ericsson Nigeria, to manage the Nigerian technical operation. These former employees of Zain technically became staff of LM Ericsson Nigeria. They were made to sign new employment contracts with Ericsson, and new Ericsson identification Cards were issued.

Since then, a number of Nigerians who are part of this number have resigned either out of frustration, or for other personal reasons, to chase other life’s endeavors. This implies that the staff strength under the managed services agreement is currently less than the initial number. There has not been new recruitment or training of transferred staff; rather the Ericsson MS management has been on an endless journey of continuously juggling people between functions (Transition - Transformation). While this went on, several foreigners (Lebanese and Pakistanis) were brought in to handle key management positions within Zain Managed services code named “Project STAR”.

A few have since December 2009 been secretly sent packing after the Senior Ericsson Management discovered these ‘experienced’ EXPATs were only increasing overhead and adding no value. It is worth mentioning that experienced Nigerians were deliberately not considered for these positions - A fast track to frustration of professionals.

 

Where Ericsson wants to be:

Ericsson, as part of optimizing operational costs, has perfected plans to secretly transfer the hub of this Nigerian operation, which is the Network Operations Center, NOC, to a Global NOC, known as GNOC, which operates from India and is manned by Indians.

Currently, a good number of Indian nationals from Ericsson GNOC India are in Zain Managed services Nigerian operation to understudy locals, gather all relevant network operations info from the locals and return to India sometime in mid April. It is after this information gathering exercise is completed that the Operations management off-shoring will commence (before 1st Week of May 2010). This activity is being carried out under the guise that the visiting Indians are in Nigeria to improve on existing processes and procedures while in the actual sense they are in Lagos - Nigeria on Industrial espionage.

Ericsson Management in presentation slides late last month explained the need to be more responsive to customers, remain competitive and by extension, remain the market leader. Staff were informed of headcount implications but never told that the affected jobs will be given to Indians in India.

Recent revelations from careless conversation of visiting Indians from GNOC reveal that that every function that can be performed remotely, through IP network log in, shall cease to exist locally in Nigeria. This simply implies that all those previously performing such functions will automatically be relieved of their jobs and the leftover (no matter how experienced) will be required to perform only physical and menial tasks. A job position they started off with in GSM over nine to eight years ago.

The question that Nigerians need to ask their Home Affairs ministry is –

How and why such a large number of young Indians were granted Nigerian visas without investigation / verification and what reasons were presented for the approval of these visas?

Implications of this Offshore Outsourcing:

1.     Nigeria does not have accurate statistics that captures the current unemployment rate in the country, but this callous initiative will definitely make this figure worse for Nigeria and reduce unemployment rate in India.

Efforts by successive governments to create employment opportunities have often yielded little or nothing so we cannot afford to further worsen the situation by carelessly allowing greedy organizations worsen the current unemployment rate in the country.

The management of the Ericsson Zain Managed Services in Nigeria under the leadership of Tahir Syed (COO and Pakistani ) is planning a massive 70% reduction in Nigerian NOC Operations staff headcount. This recovered 70% workforce is to be sourced and domiciled in India.

2.     Indians who will be provided jobs under the planned offshore outsourcing will certainly pay their taxes to their home government as they will be working from India. Indian economy will definitely gain from this revenue redirection. The impact on internal revenue base of state governments and the federal government of Nigeria is better imagined. States like Lagos state with a high number of working professionals will be worst hit.



3.     One of the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) of every profit making organization is to give back to the community via the provision of employment opportunities to citizens of the host community/country. Therefore, an organization that operates in Nigeria, with its services patronized by Nigerians, and subsequently makes profit from Nigeria, cannot and should not be allowed to export jobs to other nationals, thousands of miles away.  It is quite worrying that Indians are at it again to shortchange Nigerians after the Vaswani Brothers’ years of exploitation.



4.     Many Nigerian families, who have bread winners in the employ of Ericsson Zain Managed services, will certainly live to tell the story (of the negative impact) this planned massive lay-off will have on them. Nigeria is well known for its close family ties that includes responsibility for the less privileged among families, both nuclear and extended. The irony of this business initiative is robbing one Nigerian family of a means of livelihood to pay an Indian Family in Delhi.

5.     GSM Technology is about Nine (9) years old in Nigeria and so experienced Nigerian professionals abound. The industry has in the last five (5) years witnessed personnel from the major GSM operators leaving Nigeria for Ericsson Contract jobs in several countries. However, with the Global recession and less investment by Operators in Network Expansion, there has been massive lay off of GSM technical professionals around the world especially those working for Network equipment vendors such as Ericsson etc. In such situations, a foreigner is normally the first asked to leave while locals are retained. The idea is that as a foreigner you’re expected to go back to your home country and apply for openings in your local Ericsson operation. The irony is that these same individuals and more are not considered for experienced positions in Ericsson Nigeria when they return. This job off shoring initiative will further worsen the plight of these individuals and other experienced GSM professionals.

Ericsson’s Responsibilities:

LM Ericsson Nigeria at this time should be asked to justify its planned action in Nigeria:

1.     There is every need for Ericsson to defend this sweeping change that will lead to massively lay off of Nigerians in its employ. It must state, in unambiguous terms, how this new strategy job off shoring will benefit Nigeria and Nigerians. Downsizing in the face of harsh economic conditions is a viable solution but taking jobs away from Nigerians and transferring these same jobs to foreigners in another country is questionable.

2.      Ericsson needs to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this is an inevitable end. By this, we mean the business can no more survive if jobs are not off shored to India.

3.     They equally need to demonstrate, unequivocally, how they intend to mitigate the effects of such massive layoffs on qualified Nigerians working in their country.

4.     Ericsson Nigeria needs to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this planned Indian Initiative is not meant to serve as goodwill gesture to the new Zain Africa Operations Owner Bharti India.



We therefore wish and hope that the Presidency, Senate, House of Representatives, State Governors, Judiciary, NCC, Immigration, Security agencies, Labour Unions, Press, Civil Rights Organizations demonstrate to exploiting forces that as Nigerians we can protect the interest of Nigerians. These stakeholders should provide hope for Nigerians and stop this foreign injustice from hatching.



Thank you and God bless Nigeria.

http://www.saharareporters.com/letters/your-letters/5749--planned-offshore-outsourcing-of-nigerian-telecom-jobs-to-indian-nationals-in-india--the-ericsson-gnoc-india-initiative.html


But my take is-can anybody really regulate a private business, a la staff composition?

@cecegorz,

I notified the admin to release your post. I think it's very important that all telco professionals read it.

My take is this: Maybe now we will begin to see the need to have change in the industry. We have sold enough licenses and frequencies, now we need to start developing local capacity and content in all the various areas of the industry. We also need to get government to get off their behind and start developing a PIB equivalent for the telecoms industry. Right now Ndukwe just sells licenses and thinks he has achieved a lot. Meanwhile, you have telcos in Nigeria with 100% foreign ownership!

Done

. Tell me how we can reduce unemployement??. Its only in Nigeria that Nigerians are treated like foreigner and vice versa!.

The article posted by cecegorz is very insightful. It is sad to see, but to be honest the real issue here is profit.

Almost all companies are in business to make money/profits and unfortunately outsourcing different business functions (Call centre, NOC etc) to India will reduce costs and increase profits. This is the driver. It may be corporate greed, but it is the way capitalism has shaped business. Every year, you need to provide "year on year" growth and shareholders value.

They don't care what they do to make it happen. The Nigerian govt should be able to step in a protect jobs for hard working Nigerians. There should be laws and measures that government put in place to stop what is happening. If these companies don't like it, they can leave. The Nigerian market is growing and many multinational companies know that they cannot get growth in their North American or European markets. Growth will only happen in the African, Asian and maybe South American market.

Apart from infrastructure, I don't see why Nigeria cannot be the next India (major player in outsourcing services from different countries). We are intelligent and have the skills or ability to pick up the skills needed quickly.

@AJ
Thanks or the mediation. I even forgot about it after i found out it wasn't on display.

You see, unfolding events have shown clearly that the Nigerian skilled workforce in the ICT/Telecoms sector are increasingly becoming endangered species. simple reason is that those job functions can easily be outsourced.

Someone may want to vilify India and the big corporations but i beg to differ.
India on their part is a typical case study in Pro-activity, they saw the future and prepared for it. today they are reaping not just from Nigeria but from all over the world, you need to listen to American worker's agitation to understand the toll on them too.

Also in the wake of the global economic turmoil, most corporations are fast shedding off excess baggage by excising most of the jobs that are not their core function from their payroll. It has been proven to be far cheaper and even more efficient to out-source as you can demand better performance from the consulting company based on the SLA. That is one good way of managing customers expectation without ownership of the risk.

Forget our leaders that keeps signing NATO treaties without reading the content like most of us click 'i agree' during software installations, nothing much can really come from their direction apart from signing away our future for the present pot of porridge in millions of dollars.

We, the professionals are the ones that must wake up and smell the coffee. Yeah, local content is definitely one sure way to go, More indigenous servicing companies joining the bidding process can help win the jobs for our dear country men.

Is no more news that Bharti Airtel India Telecom is the owner of Zain Africa. With this development, Convergence Lab india with NDJ Telecom Africa(www.ndjtelecom.com) came up with One year Integrated Course, 6months class room training and 6months working in telecom company in india, total of one year experience certificate to advance in, ur career. Pls for more details enter this URL: http://www.convergence-labs.com/itnn.html39



07026693700

I am telecom vendor and i know how solve there problem and i can install and configure microwave, and i know of equipment that can support Fiber Optic

Hi Guys, thanks for all the Info, good to see we all have our thinking caps on!!!

Well i'm in a bit of a pickle, i have a 4yr old 2.2 computer science degree, 2yrs work experience (1yr in marketing, 1yr in software Support/maintenance) and 100k in my pocket(Budget). I've been out of the market for 2yrs and need to decide what certification could put me back on track.

I started out with a flare for programming so i have thought extensively about doing an MCPD in C#.Net/ASP.Net, but given the trend in the Nigerian IT industry (to the best of my knowledge) with regards to developer's enumeration i'm beginning to ask myself if it's worth it.

so i'm wide open for suggestions, your contributions are sincerely appreciated

Best Regards

I would go the network appliance route. Cisco CCIP or CCNP Wireless. Maybe Unified Communication, although not yet appreciated in Nigeria per se.
Cisco is the world leader in networking appliances (note: appliances, not infrastructure), so you shouldn't go wrong with their certifications.
But try to stay off the general track; there are opportunities for professionals who are skilled in wireless right now. I foresee a lot of new developments in the 802.1x area (WiMAX & WiFi) in the coming months/years.

@salihu_ali Pls, i will like to get copy of those Telecomms books
My email is kenniojo@live.com

Hello Guys,

Do you need books on the various telecommunications access technologies, transmission, the use of tools amongst others. Feel free to post @ telecomscraze*dot* com,


See you there

Telecoms craze team!!!!!

Hi all

I am looking for a device and i think i have come to the right place. i am looking for a GSM jamming device. Please i would appreciate if anyone could tell me where i can get it in Nigeria

Thanks a lot.

^^
Don't know if it's available in Nigeria, but it can be easily shipped out from China or Taiwan.
Cost usually is around $120-150, less shipping costs. Do you have any particular specs in mind?

@Ajanlekoko.cn i hv ur email add.i smthng 2 discuss.thank

stalker:

Hi all

I am looking for a device and i think i have come to the right place. i am looking for a GSM jamming device. Please i would appreciate if anyone could tell me where i can get it in Nigeria

Thanks a lot.

Looks like someone's beating you at the stalking game, gurl? 

why jamming device when you can as well bug the target? need some lesson in wire-tapping?

^^
Maybe the device is needed for a location, like a church or bank or something?

it is actually for a mosque.

For once, I actually have a question
Anybody working on the regulatory/regulator side?
Would like you to share your own side with us, and I want to ask a few questions.

Hey folks,

I have a question for you guys on this recent plot by MTN and ZAIN to milk country pple of their hard earned monies
If you use any of these networks, you probably get at least 2 sms everyday asking you to send 'GO' or 'WIN' to their designated numbers inorder to win the days' #2m or the months' #10m. Each text actually costs #100 bucks

Is this actually a promo or a plain old Baba Ijebu lottery. Personally i see it as a lottery because you are not really buying any product unlike in 'recharge with Bleep naira and get yyy naira free'

I am just imagining how many free millions of bucks that are rolling into their coffers per seconds.

Another issue is whether they have authorized licence from the National lottery commission to do such

What do y'all think

cecegorz:

Hey folks,

I have a question for you guys on this recent plot by MTN and ZAIN to milk country pple of their hard earned monies
If you use any of these networks, you probably get at least 2 sms everyday asking you to send 'GO' or 'WIN' to their designated numbers inorder to win the days' #2m or the months' #10m. Each text actually costs #100 bucks

Is this actually a promo or a plain old Baba Ijebu lottery. Personally i see it as a lottery because you are not really buying any product unlike in 'recharge with Bleep naira and get yyy naira free'

I am just imagining how many free millions of bucks that are rolling into their coffers per seconds.

Another issue is whether they have authorized licence from the National lottery commission to do such

What do y'all think

Dude,
All promos are lotteries. Even your good old 'look under the crown'. It's all targeted towards you spending more money on their products. Spend more on SMS, stand a chance to win, period. And it's linked to various promotions. MTN's promo is linked to the WC 2010. Zain is doing some kind of Bee Gee-sounding (Wake up and smell the coffee, or something like that) promotion. So you could say they are legit.