India's Honourable Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has been leading the initiative for skill development in the country as the Chairman of the National Council for Skill Development (NSDC) [5]. In order to support NSDC's initiatives the telecom industry collectively has set up Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) under the aegis of NSDC. TSSC is registered as a society with members from various telecom bodies like COAI, AUSPI, TAIPA, ICA and representation from the Government and Government agencies and academia. There are premier institutes in India like MITSOT(MIT School of Telecom), SITM (Symbiosis Institute of Telecom and Management) and Balaji Institute of Telecom Management, in Pune that specifically focus on telecom sector leading to skills enhancement in the students. These institutes need to be better known to the ultimate destinations of telecom professionals that contribute to the The Great Indian Telecom Ecosystem.

The objective behind establishment of TSSC is to identify and prepare a group of skills needed by telecom industry in various verticals. For each skill type, it would then finalize the curriculum in consultation with the industry as well as the various training organizations currently engaged in such trainings, so as to have common standards and skills mapping. It would thereafter plan and institutionalize an effective system for training the trainers and grant affiliation and accreditation to various training agencies. This would be a major boon for the telecom industry which today struggles to have standards and processes for each skill set individually. The skill inventory maintained by TSSC would provide ease of recruitment to the industry and save tremendous amount of cost and effort that the individual companies presently put in training and recruitment.

Having said this, it is important to note that there is little evidence to show that students at all levels are specifically aiming to pursue careers in telecom industry. It is for this basic reason that telecom industry has become more an extension of either FMCG or IT sector. For the centres of excellence and institutes to deliver world class leaders in end to end telecom business and technology management, it is important that the students are encouraged and more so instigated at a very early stage to embrace the telecom industry.

It is certainly a fact that not many students, pursuing graduation and/or post-graduation, today would have a structured insight into the potential, scale, revenue, verticals and constituents of the telecom industry. Most would either consider it the handsets or “towers”industry, which is a very myopic view of the massive multi billion dollars telecom industry that India is nurturing.

There are two routes of telecom industry ecosystem that distinctively evolve opportunities for the Indian youth and will lead to a critical mass for employment right from the Feet on Street to managerial level vacancies.

While handling 900Mn subscribers in 26 Indian states [6], India's telecom infrastructure industry has evolved a lot. The nature of telecom infrastructure that the country demands is based on the regulatory condition and environment in the country. For more than a decade and a half, all the equipment vendors were selling GSM equipment, till the sniff of potential 3G auctions started to take shape. With the advent of new technology, and associated regulatory framework, the shape of infrastructure networks began to evolve. Now India boasts of leading wireless technologies launched across 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2300 MHz spectrum bands. In effect, India today has LTE TDD, HSPA+,EVDO, CDMA 1x and GSM networks in various spectrum bands [7]. These spectrum bands and technologies lead to infrastructure OEMs deploying different equipments to manage the multi technology networks and hence there is a spurt of skill required in such diverse requirements (Figure 1). Once the regulatory framework is setup for new technologies leap frogging in Indian telecom industry and multiple technologies playing in the battlefield, the consumer connect happens through devices. The ecosystem of devices is most critical to technology adoption. If the technology get deployed but not followed by a supportive ecosystem then the technology is as good as not available. Therefore, voice and data access devices make or break the technology and become the interface to technology experienced by the customer. Each device has a uniqueness of its own and that differentiates the consumer pull. The user interface layer with content and services is a key to devices differentiation in terms of user experience. Lastly, with the entire ecosystem chain ready to unleash, the wireless services gets promoted and devices reach the hands of consumers. The wireless service providers launch various services and are steadily converging to defining sales and marketing as their exclusive core competence. This is the reason why most of the wireless operators are outsourcing functions like network management, capacity and services management, IT and consumer service solutions. What they retain is core sales and marketing functions, mostly being spear headed as well as executed by professionals having FMCG experience. In all the stages of ecosystem evolution, specific competence management is required and employment specialisations /vacancies can exist for students, provided they understand the categories, nuances, challenges and opportunities.

Figure 1. Infrastructure LED Eco System and Associated Skills

Any technology is as good as the variety of devices and associated user experience (Figure 2). The devices ecosystem starts with the choice of operating system a handset will support. There are a host of open standard and proprietary OS that the manufacturers are able to choose from. Once that's done and the supported technology is nailed, chipsets are identified that will maintain and enhance the performance of the OS and technology. It is important that the chipset assuring the most optimal performance is selected so that the user experience doesn't suffer in terms of processing power and battery life. Once the horizons of OS and chipset are identified, the devices OEM create a reference design [8] and handsets are manufactured with a variety of screen sizes, camera and audio capability et al. Next comes the differentiating universe of mobile application developers where masses to niche solutions are available both for consumers and enterprise with single or multi-screen support. Finally, companies that manufacture the devices don't distribute the same directly. Considering this, large distribution solutions companies come into play that import and distribute devices at a national or a regional level. This is a clear evidence of the fact that each vertical in the devices ecosystem retains its core competence and they all are well knit into the system.

Figure 2. Devices LED Eco system and Skills

Considering the above distinct ecosystems in the telecom sector, it is clearly evident that this sector lacks a focussed approach in career development at an infancy stage. Take for example the mobile phones distribution. There are global players in distribution business here [9] but no educational institution targets this competence in students who can actually land coveted roles in mobile phones sales and distribution corporates. Same is for content ecosystem, whereby companies need telecom specialists to market and sell the distinguished user experience led content being generated.

A real estate agent uses a smartphone as a compass; a Dual Income Single Kid (DISK) family wants their maids to carry rattler and mosquito repellant application in the phones. How many people really are geared upto understand the changing consumer behavior? And that too on multiple screens!

Telecom sector has evolved beyond service providers and devices manufacturers to a truly convergent ecosystem. This also implies that aspirants willing to make a career out of this sector must have a 360 degree approach in terms of being masters of their domains but jacks of the entire telecom related community. Traditionally, content or VAS was distributed by service providers, now it is being distributed by smartphone manufacturers. In some time, the content providers themselves will need to create their brands and entity and hence will need better and closer intimacy and competence of professionals in telecom domain.

India Telecom Story is going strong and both infrastructure and devices related ecosystem is developing well. The country is at par with the world now with regard to latest wireless technology being available (Figure 3). The mobile market in India is contributing to upwards of 10% of the total telecom market. VAS companies are beginning to organize themselves better and have started promoting richer content due to better data bandwidth being available [10]. However, the impetus on telecom careers right from higher secondary into colleges is still not adequate. Since telecom is a fast paced and changing industry, specific telecom related programs must be introduced in curriculum and efforts of TSSC under the aegis of NSDC have to be supported strongly by the industry in order to evolve a competent and creative telecom workforce. Each educational institution needs to include a specific module/workshop on telecom sector so that the students are able to concentrate on telecom related competencies. Telecom is one of the top 10 hiring sectors in India [11]. To maintain this growth, corporates driving India telecom ecosystem must pledge to hire candidates that acquire specific telecom related skills. This loop of early start with hiring commitment from the industry must be closed fast enough for the Indian Telecom Story to keep shining.

Figure 3. Wireless Data Technology Deployment Lag-India vs Global