Telecom infra hiring surges amid covid
Hiring of engineers, riggers and forward repair team workers surged as companies worked to provide seamless services to customers and ensure connectivity
Telecom infrastructure and engineering companies hired aggressively as remote working fuelled the demand for voice and data services, staffing firm TeamLease Digital said, in sharp contrast to widespread layoffs and pay cuts across sectors amid the covid-19 pandemic.
As offices closed and employees signed in from home, the demand for expansion and optimization of network capacity increased. Since the beginning of the nationwide lockdown in late March to contain the spread of coronavirus, hiring of engineers and maintenance and repair executives rose by 18-20% on the back of a 24-28% jump in demand for mobile and internet services in residential areas of tier-two and tier-three cities, TeamLease Digital said on Wednesday.
Hiring of engineers, riggers and forward repair team (FRT) workers surged as companies worked to provide seamless services to customers and ensure connectivity.
“In the telecom sector, in the last six months after the March-April lockdown, there has been an increase in hiring… The strategy to give better data speed and maintain quality of communication is here to stay and this will have an impact on talent requirements," said Gautam Vohra, vice president and business head, telecom staffing, TeamLease Digital.
Original equipment manufacturers and telecom infrastructure segments will have more job openings in future as telecom service providers continue to upgrade their networks to meet the rising demand of voice and internet, Vohra said.
Within the telecom space, hiring for infrastructure and technology towards gaming and edutech applications recorded a jump of 20-25%. However, hiring in the non-technical segments by telecom operators and other internet services providers remained flat since March.
“More replacement hiring is taking place based on strategic priorities for non-technical profiles… For network operations, companies took in close to 15-20% additional people," Vohra said.
India’s tower infrastructure industry has a revenue potential of Rs21,500 crore-Rs31,000 crore by 2023, according to a report by The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (Taipa) and EY released in September.
“Between 2007-2020, the number of towers grew more than two folds at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 7.1% to reach 606,300 units. With a robust footprint, the tower penetration in India reached 83%, second only to China at 100%," the Taipa-EY report said.
Global trends indicate that tower companies are shifting from a macro tower focused construct to new business models around fibre, small cells, data centres, Wi-Fi and smart cities to support the massive growth in data consumption, the report said.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!