Good news for tower technicians. Brendon Carr, a commissioner on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission told a college this week domestic 5G roll out will require 20,000 new “skilled workers,” based on estimates from wireless workers. He is working with the National Wireless Safety Alliance to establish training programs for future telecom tower technicians (TTT-1), a designation and certification developed by the safety group. Currently some schools have seven week programs.
“It’s time we build on the success here at Aiken and stand up similar tower training programs in community colleges and technical schools throughout the U.S.,” Carr said. “Doing so will address our country’s need for more TTT-1 certified workers and help close the skills gap by turning our country’s community colleges into pipelines for 5G jobs. “ The TTT-1 certification is a non-supervisory certification described by NWSA as “for crew members who perform general construction activities with an emphasis on tower system installation, modification, maintenance, and inspection of support structures used in telecommunications, including personal wireless communications, public safety communications, utility networks, and broadcast.”