Match the Skill Sets as per Telecom Sector Expectations for Telecom Sector Skill Council (Proposed)

Reshaping the Skill Sets to match Telecom Sector Expectations(Proposed)

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
Key Objective of SIP 3
BODY 5 a) Introduction 5 b) Methodology 6 c) Results and Discussions 7 d) Conclusion and Recommendations 7 e) Limitations 7
Annexure 7 a) References 7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Key Objective of SIP

My study aims to conduct the knowledge and skill gap analysis that are present in telecom sector. I will have to make qualitative analysis of these various job roles once they are identified. The qualitative assessment will be done by obtaining information from industry professionals of the requirements of certain job role, difficulties in recruitment of certain job role, turnover ratio of employees of certain job role etc. Thus by gathering all the relevant information an assessment will lead us to the skill gap that have been created in industry. A highly skilled workforce works more efficiently and effectively. Those skills, however, need to match with the changing needs of business. A skilled work force drives innovation, which in turns drives the need for other skills. The Skills Gap Analysis helps us to understand the mismatch between the skills that exist in a sector and those being demanded by industry (Companies). The Skills Gap Analysis provides primary researched data aimed to understand the existing workforce at skills level and sub-skills level. The objective of the project is to finally come up with maximum of three job roles and conduct the analysis of the same. The deliverable will be the job description of these job roles and competencies that are needed for these job roles. On based of this study Telecom Sector Skill Council will develop national occupational standards and these standards will help employers and individuals in following manner.
This study will help individuals to: * Create a checklist to measure own performance. * Develop new skills and enhance existing skills. * Understand and facilitate career progression at the workplace. It will also help in lateral/vertical movement within the organization. * Assess self-performance against expected job description as well as assess one’s competence against other job roles and thus gauge suitability for career moves.
This study will help employers to: * Increase business productivity by developing a better trained, better equipped and more effective workforce. * Reduce the costs for recruitment by hiring industry ready people who are already meet the criteria mentioned in occupational standard like performance criteria, knowledge and understanding. * Develop training programs to address both organizational and individual learning needs. The training can then be evaluated against the outcomes. * Arrive at a similar job description for a particular job role to maintain uniformity across the industry.
BODY

a) Introduction

India has emerged as one of the youngest and fastest growing economies in the world today. One of the sectors that has shown the signs of profitability and contributed significantly to the country's economy is the telecom sector. In fact, the Indian telecom market has gained recognition as one of the most lucrative markets globally. The vast rural market holds a huge potential to drive the future growth of the telecom sector. Further, the government's initiatives for increasing the telecom connectivity in rural areas, are also likely to aid the telecom service providers to extend their services in the unconnected rural areas. Government policies and regulatory framework implemented by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have provided a conducive environment for service providers. This has made the sector more competitive, while enhancing the accessibility of telecommunication services at affordable tariffs to the consumers. In the last two decades, the Indian Telecom Sector and mobile telephony in particular has caught the imagination of India by revolutionizing the way we communicate, share information; and through its staggering growth helped millions stay connected. This growth, however, has and continues to be at the cost of the Climate, powered by an unsustainable and inefficient model of energy generation and usage. Simultaneously, this growth has also come at significant and growing loss to the state exchequer, raising fundamental questions on the future business and operation model of the Telecom sector. With introduction of newer technologies, there is a plethora of new job opportunities in the hardware as well as the software domain of telecom sector. The telecom sector comprises numerous areas and hence there are various kinds of jobs in the industry.Many jobs are related to the development and maintenance of devices, lines, systems and networks used to facilitate communication. This offers a wide range of career prospects, and one can have a career in application/product development, application testing, ERP implementation/integration, system administration, network planning, data networking, mobile application development and value-added services. Telecom providers are tapping the potential of services that are rendered on mobile and connected devices like (TV and Internet). These companies require large capex and skilled manpower for their expansion to host and provide these services. With this growth, telecom product developers (that develop devices that are the building blocks of these networks) need to churn out newer products, with intelligent features and services. Talking about the telecom sector from the enterprise perspective, There will always be migration of matured products to low-cost geographies (like India). And the expectation from Indian divisions to extract innovation out of it will continue for the next decade.
To sustain in such tech savvy environment one has to to be equipped with skill that meets the telecom sector expectations on a current basis. This project will look into such job roles that require skills that can fulfill telecom sector expectations. There are many job roles in which a skill gap exist and individuals need training to acquire the required skillsets for that job role.
(FINIDINGS)

b) Methodology
Stage 1: To collect information from different online sources, consulting reports from well-known authors and companies.
Stage 2: To analyze the data and perform industry analysis.
Stage 3: To conduct interviews of industry professionals to collect primary information for the skill gap analysis
Stage 4: Findings and conclusion of the data collected.
The intended process that would be followed in my study should be as follows: * Industry analysis of Telecom Sector * Identify the sub segment in the Telecom sector where there is a room for identifying new job roles or the job roles which is not able to fulfill industry requirements. * Identifying Job Roles: New job roles will be identified or the job roles that exist but are difficult for individuals to match industry standards. * Collect information from industry about different job roles and problems related to it. Hence from that information we can lead to identification of job roles which are having skill gaps. * Identifying Skills Gaps: The reasons why a skill gap exist for a specific job role. Interact with the industry people with the help of surveys to get their present and future requirements and also for the skill gap they are facing. * Identifying Competencies: The skill requirements that are required for a job role. Basically it will be to define job responsibilities, skills and obligation of individuals to possess for the job role. * Interpretation: In this part interpret the data in hand and map requirement with the specific job role. Study their job description and skill requirements for these job roles.

Current Scenario * The Indian telecom sector has witnessed tremendous growth over the past decade. Today, the Indian telecom network is the second largest in the world after China. A liberal policy regime and involvement of the private sector have played an important role in transforming this sector. The total number of telephones as on 31st April 2013 was 897.02 million. * The telecom industry has witnessed significant growth in subscriber base over the last decade, with increasing network coverage and a competition-induced decline in tariffs acting as catalysts for the growth in subscriber base. The growth story and the potential have also served to attract newer players in the industry, with the result that the intensity of competition has kept increasing. Internet subscribers in India grew to 164.81 million as of March 31, 2013, with as many as seven out of eight net users in the country accessing the services via their mobile phones, according to telecom regulator TRAI. The total number of mobile internet subscribers stood at 143.2 million at the end of the last fiscal. The number of broadband subscribers increased to 15.05 million as of March 31, 2013, from 14.98 million as of December 31, 2012. The number of non-mobile internet subscribers in the quarter ended March 31, 2013, grew to 21.61 million from 21.57 million, registering a quarterly growth rate of 0.16 per cent. * Liberalization of the sector has not only led to rapid growth but also helped a great deal towards maximization of consumer benefits, evident from a huge fall in tariffs. Telecom sector has witnessed a continuous rising trend in the total number of telephone subscribers and hence the teledensity. In simple terms, ‘Teledensity’ is the number of landline telephones in use for every 100 individuals living within an area. A teledensity greater than 100 means there are more telephones than people. * Third-world countries may have a teledensity of less than 10. Teledensity is also an important indicator of telecom penetration in the country. Teledensity has decreased from 76.86 per cent in December 2011 to 73.16 at the end of April, 2013. Teledensity varies across circles and there is significant urban-rural divide. * While urban teledensity reached 139.33 per cent at the end of April 2013 and rural teledensity was only 40.49 per cent. Subscription in the urban areas decreased from 548.80 million in February, 2013 to 544.55 million at the end of April, 2013. Subscription in rural areas increased from 349.22 million to 352.47 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription is -0.77% and 0.93% respectively.

Figure 1
GROWTH IN TELECOM
Growth Drivers
Key factors, which will fuel the growth of the sector include increased access to services owing to launch of newer telecom technologies like 3G and BWA, better devices, changing consumer behavior and the emergence of cloud technologies. A majority of the investments will go into the capital expenditure for setting up newer networks like 3G and developing the backhaul, among other things. * Subscriber Base
The mobile subscriber base in India is estimated rise by 9 per cent to 696 million connections this year, according to technology researcher Gartner. The mobile service penetration in the country is currently at 51 per cent and is expected to grow to 72 per cent by 2016. * Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS)
India's current MVAS industry has an estimated size of US$ 2.7 billion. The industry derives its revenues majorly from the top five to six products such as game based applications, music downloads, etc, which continue to form close to 80 per cent of VAS revenues. The Indian MVAS industry estimated to grow to US$ 10.8 billion by 2015, with the next wave of growth in subscriptions expected to come from semi-urban and rural areas. Mobile Number Portability (MNP).
Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 89.70 million subscribers at the end of March 2013 to 91.73 million at the end of April 2013. * Handsets
The mobile handset market's revenues in India will grow from US$ 5.7 billion in 2010 to US$ 7.8 billion in 2016, according to the study. India is the second largest mobile handset market in the world and is set to become an even larger market with unit shipment of 208.4 million in 2016 at a CAGR of 11.8 per cent from 2010 to 2016.
The Indian mobile handset market posted revenue of Rs.359.46 billion in 2012-2013, compared to Rs.313.30 billion in the earlier fiscal year on the back of increasing sale of smartphones. In 2012-2013, Karbonn grew 73.1 per cent, Samsung ended the year with revenue of Rs.113.28 billion compared to Rs.78.91 billion last year showing a growth of 43.6 per cent. The iconic Apple posted revenue of Rs.12.93 billion in FY 2013 in the country compared to Rs.2.50 billion in the previous financial year.
Telecom Operator wise Market Share

Figure 2 * Bharti is far ahead with close 20% market share in India, Reliance (16.58%) and Vodafone (16.41) are having a close battle. Reliance currently has 154 million subscribers as compared to 152.5 million of Vodafone. Uninor, who is one of the late entrants in Indian Telecom market now has over 45 million subscribers and accounts for close to 5 percent of Indian mobile market share.
FDI Policy in Telecom * Foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom sector (including radio paging, cellular mobile, and basic telephone services) during April-March 2011-12 stood at US$ 1,997 million, as per the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) data. * Total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 952.91 million at the end of April 2012 from 951.34 million at the end of March 2012. * Total Wireless subscriber base increased from 919.17 million in March 2012 to 921.02 million at the end of April 2012. Wire line subscription stood at 31.89 million at the end of April 2012.Overall teledensity has reached 78.71. * Total Broadband subscriber base has increased from 13.79 million at the end of March 2012 to 13.95 million at the end of April 2012, there by showing a monthly growth of 1.13 per cent. (India) Upcoming Trends
1. Fiber Focus: FTTX
With bandwidth demands growing in enterprise networks, fiber-optic technology development is keeping pace. Fiber access is one of the most important technologies in the next generation network. It increases the access layer bandwidth and builds a sustainable-development access layer network. From finding ways to minimize power-hungry LAN elements to more robust cabling to emerging new standards, optical communications technology should continue to offer an effective, efficient alternative to copper for a growing variety of enterprise network requirements.
Service providers across the world therefore, are developing new network architectures to deliver high-bandwidth services to the last mile, which are included in the umbrella term FTTx. This includes fibre-to-the-curb, fibre-to-the-node, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-premises.
2. Arrival of 4G
An acronym for Long Term Evolution, LTE is a 4G wireless communications standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) that's designed to provide up to 10x the speeds of 3G networks for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks and wireless hotspots. 4G technologies are designed to provide IP-based voice, data and multimedia streaming at speeds of at least 100 Mbit per second and up to as fast as 1 GBit per second.
The majority of broadband wireless access (BWA) licensees were aiming to commercially launch 4G services in 2012. However, even as the year draws to a close, the Indian telecom industry is yet to see any major initiatives in the segment. All BWA license holders except Bharti Airtel have failed to achieve their mid- to late 2012 target for service launch.
Currently, Bharti Airtel is the only player in the Indian 4G market. The operator launched services in Kolkata in April 2012, and subsequently introduced them in Bengaluru and Pune. Other operators such as Reliance Industries Limited-owned Infotel Broadband, Aircel, Augere and Tikona Digital Networks are aiming at a 2013 launch.
3. IP-based P2P messaging
More than one researcher has forecast that mobile instant messaging in one form or another will displace SMS – if not now, then in the near future. And it’s undoubtedly true that MIM applications such as BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp, not to mention social networking tools such as FaceBook and Twitter, are rapidly gaining ground where SMS used to rein supreme. Whole gangs of BlackBerry-toting teenagers remain loyal to the brand simply because they rely on BBM to keep in touch with what’s happening in their network.
Research estimates that social networks and portals will be generating 314 billion SMS messages per year by 2015: for example, Facebook is using SMS to extend its reach in developing countries while Twitter already enables users to tweet via text messaging. Elsewhere, app developers and marketers are driving up demand for A2P messaging, as they increasingly turn to push messaging and SMS to drive downloads and boost customer engagement. SMS may well have come of age, but it’s by no means over the hill.
4. VAS dynamics
The value added services (VAS) industry is poised to witness a big shift, thanks to the rollout of 3G and 4G services in India. This change signifies a major inflection point for the VAS market. In an intensely competitive landscape, operators are facing challenges on three key fronts - driving cost efficiencies, ensuring revenue growth, and building customer engagement with their brand. Consumers are demanding highly relevant, timely, personalized, content-rich, and context-aware VAS over the mobile - with expectations of consistently high levels of service. In this scenario, the ability to cost effectively and rapidly retail a wide catalog of services tailored to specific consumer sub-segments is a critical competitive differentiator for operators.
Currently, about 50 per cent of VAS revenues are generated from SMS-based services. Other revenue sources from the VAS segment include services related to astrology, Bollywood, cricket, devotional, ringtones and interactive voice response. Utility-based VAS like mobile payments, education and health care alerts, weather updates and commodity price-related information are still at a nascent stage, but are set to take off in the next five years.
The impact of 3G and 4G technology is evident from the high data transfer rates over longer distances, efficient bandwidth use, and the launch of map and positioning services as well as multi-player gaming facilities. However, these services are complex and need advanced platforms, which makes it imperative for network VAS companies to efficiently develop the external ecosystem in order to enhance end-user experience. Ensuring this will depend on the transition from a rigid operator-centric network to a dynamic open market, where revenue sharing models are not skewed towards operators.
According to a study, the Indian mobile value-added services (MVAS) market is expected to move from the traditional SMS-based services to Internet-based and application-based services. Currently valued at over US$5 billion, Indian MVAS industry is expected to reach well over US$6 billion. (Consultant)

c) Results and Discussions

d) Conclusion and Recommendations

e) Limitations

Annexure a) References
(COAI)., C. O. (n.d.).
Consultant, S. (n.d.). TMT Trends in 2013.
India, C. C. (n.d.). A Brief Report On Telecom Sector.

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