Compared to more traditional trades, working as an internet technician — typically called a fiber or broadband technician — is a far less messy and strenuous craft, according to Nathan Larson.
Currently, Larson serves as the director of the Telecom Tech School in Colorado, a non-profit which offers training and a paid apprenticeship for newcomers to get a head start in the profession.
“From my experience, working in the fiber area is a lot less physical than putting on roofs,” he told us. “It's a lot cleaner than crawling under houses when a sewer pipe breaks when it's 20 below and someone has to crawl under there and fix it.”
Larson has worked in many trades and physical roles but has only recently come into the broadband industry.
“You know, I've laid concrete, I ran a paint company, I did flooring... I always loved working with my hands,” he explained. With many people considering trade work, Larson sees that when it comes to broadband internet, they “don’t realize this craft or trade even exists.”
But not only does it exist, “fiber is taking over,” he declared — citing the billions of dollars being poured into infrastructure development from the US government.
“And there are just so many jobs,” he added. At least 180,000 workers are still estimated to be needed for future buildouts and maintenance.
A trade of ‘the future’
For those who do know that broadband exists, most are unaware of the breadth of the trade.
“How they're thinking of it is like working for Xfinity,” Larson detailed. “We go put in a bunch of cable and hook it up to your house, and that's it.”
While home installation is indeed one area of the work, there's a lot more to keeping the infrastructure of fiber technology and existing coax cables up and running.
As an aerial lineman for instance, you’ll spend time climbing utility poles or working in bucket trucks to service fiber and coaxial networks at heights. Whereas in underground work you may be trenching new network pathways and servicing underground infrastructure.
Even in the underground context, “most of it's done with all drilling equipment, drilling machines, not much hand digging or hand auguring, like the old days. It's all done by a machine,” Larson explained — making it an easier and cleaner process than many neighboring industries.
That simplicity extends to construction-focused areas of the trade, too.
Scott Connelly — who works at Primoris, a construction company currently hiring — explained to us, “It’s technically less challenging than a lot of other areas of construction.” And skills from other areas can easily translate. Connelly put it simply, "If you can dig a ditch and put pipe in the ground, you can definitely work in broadband."
Broadband technician work presents its own specialties as well. Splicing, for instance, is an exceptionally lucrative area — and one where, as Larson has seen, people don't realize isn’t exclusively outdoors.
Many splicers work in trailers and indoors, especially when working with data centers and bigger central office spaces or fiber hubs. Now, plenty of the work will still imply a degree of being outdoors in the elements, but it's far less exhausting than many neighboring outdoor skilled work, as Larson pointed out.
One of the unique rewards of working in the industry right now is the impact these technicians have on underserved communities. As Larson explained, “The federal government, the states, everybody wants everybody to have access to it, everybody to have equal access to it.”
Telecom Tech School focuses on bringing that same equity to the technician workforce that helps connect these populations. As a non-profit, the program assists candidates — particularly low-income, previously incarcerated and other non-traditional candidates — in getting the training they need.
“Everything we're trying to do is help students who don't have money for tuition find scholarships, so they don't have to pay any money, they don't have to borrow any money, they don't have to owe any money with high interest rates,” said Larson.
Then, graduates of the apprenticeship enter an industry desperate for qualified technicians debt-free with a technical knowledge of a trade that isn’t going anywhere.
“This is the future, it’s here right now. And there’s a gold rush of who’s gonna get all the stuff installed, who’s gonna get everybody connected.”