Wireless Service Technicians

Cell site technicians who are in charge of several cell sites spend their workweek visiting the different sites. Depending on how far apart the sites are, this may mean driving a substantial distance. While the actual computer equipment is located inside a building at each cell site location, any work or routine checking of the radio tower requires outside work, in varying kinds of weather. Most technicians are assigned a home base—either an office or one of the cell sites—from which they travel out to maintain the other sites. However, their "offices" are really completely portable: from their cellular phones and laptop computers, they can do their work anywhere. They truly live in a wireless, mobile environment.

This is important because the management of cell sites is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week business. If an alarm system goes off in the middle of the night, a cell site technician must respond. The ability to access the system remotely from a laptop computer may save the technician an actual trip to the site. The sites must be maintained continuously, so wireless service technicians may work unusual hours.

Most wireless service technicians are not very closely supervised. They generally set their own schedules (with management concurrence) and work alone and independently. They may, however, have to work closely at times with other company employees to integrate new sites into the system, make modifications to the system, or troubleshoot problems.