Telecommunications Linesworker
What the work is
Installs, maintains and repairs external telecommunication equipment such as aerial lines, conduits and underground cables, radio and mobile phone antennae, and limited items of terminal equipment.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Installs and maintains external telecommunication equipment such as aerial lines, conduits and underground cables
- Repairs and replaces damaged or faulty telecommunication equipment
- Installs and maintains radio and mobile phone antennae
- Tests and troubleshoots telecommunication equipment to identify and resolve issues
- Performs routine maintenance on telecommunication equipment
- Works at heights on a range of telecommunications structures, such as poles, towers and masts
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a telecommunications crew installing and repairing phone and internet lines, towers and cabling across a country region. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A farm that has been offline for a week gets its connection back and calls you a legend
- You trace a fault in a pit by the roadside and the whole street's lines come alive
- A building full of neat, labelled cables that anyone could follow in ten years' time
Hard days
- Working on a pole or in a pit in the rain with no signal on your own phone
- Customers who have been disconnected for days and are, quite fairly, furious
- Finding that someone dug through the cable you needed, and did not report it
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 382333, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.