Power and connection
Telecommunications & Cabling
You install the physical layer everything digital runs on. Fiber, copper, data centers, cell sites. Nobody thinks about it until it's down, and Georgia is building data centers faster than it can staff them.
A day in it
- Data center build. Badge in, safety brief, get the day's rack assignments.
- Pull fiber overhead through the tray. Bend radius matters more than speed.
- Dress and terminate at the panel. Every strand labeled.
- Fusion splice the runs that need it. Clean fiber, good cleave, low loss.
- Lunch, then OTDR testing every run and documenting the results.
- One run is out of spec. Reterminate and retest until it passes.
- Documentation package goes to the customer at the end of the job.
What it pays
- Starting out
- $42,940
- Median
- $70,500
- Experienced
- $104,840
Telecommunications line installers are SOC 49-9052. Telecom equipment installers and repairers track separately under SOC 49-2022: $42,440 starting, $62,630 median, $94,970 experienced.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 (national). Starting out = 10th percentile. Median = 50th. Experienced = 90th. Annual. Georgia figures to be added alongside national. SOC 49-9052. Real numbers only — never estimated, never rounded up.
How you get in
- —Hired as a helper with no experience. Very open door.
- —BICSI and fiber certifications are what move you up, and they are short courses.
- —Tower climbing is a separate certification and pays substantially more.
- —The Mustard Seed covers certification, testing, and tools.
What you need before you start
- —Ceilings, crawl spaces, ladders, and lifts — or towers, if you go that way.
- —Meticulousness. Sloppy cable work is visible forever.
- —Travel on some jobs, especially cell site and outside plant work.
Someone doing it
Photograph, first name, age, and three or four sentences in their own words — to be supplied.
What it turns into
Lead tech, then fiber splicer or data center infrastructure specialist, then project management. Georgia's data center growth means this trade is not going quiet.
Want to talk to somebody doing this?
Two fields. A person reads it and texts you back.