Job Saturation in Global Telecom Industry

Muhammad Junaid Ashfaq, Saad Shahid Khokhar, Taimoor Saleem (m_junaid_a, saad_skhokhar, taimoorsaleem89)@yahoo.com Instructor: Shahbaz Pervaiz Chatta seshabaz@yahoo.com Department of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan.
Abstract: There are many misconceptions regarding job market now a day, especially in telecom sector. Most people say that future of telecom industry is questionable. Some say there are hopes for betterment. Few even say that everything is good and no problem exists in the industry. The basic question is that what the industry really looks like? Whether there is saturation or jobs are begging for professionals or the way in between. The objective of this research paper is to depict the real situation of global telecom job market. After visiting companies, interviewing respective personalities and collecting statistic facts and figures. The findings are that the job market has recovered well from the recent recession. The brighter side is larger than the darker side. In the telecom job market, hopes are plenty and despair is rare. The conclusion is that the telecom industry is very demanding, vast open for future development, which is yet to be made. The digestible power of the job market in global telecom industry will increase with the passage of time.

the telecom sector. In Pakistan also, the after effects of this recession can be observed. Car sales are decreasing, house prices are falling, banks have gone bankrupt, entire countries have gone bankrupt and the only thing that is going up is the unemployment rate. Telecom industry has seen its boom in the last decade, but now people are losing their jobs in the industry. New job opportunities are almost freeze. The mobile industry has crossed its four billionth customer mark [4], but newer customers are less spending than early ones, this result in the decrease of average revenue per user, or ARPU. In Pakistan, Ufone, one of the biggest service providers of the region, has decided to freeze new recruitments in 2010. Telecom equipment vendors situation is not much different from service providers. Cisco Systems, the leading internet equipment vendor, reported that its revenues were likely to fall by 5% to 10% year on year [4]. Cisco is not the only equipment vendor to be struggling, Sony Ericsson is now at collapse even, as it cuts expenses sufficiently to offset decline in its average selling price mainly due to the tough competition in the market. Crises in the handset market dont end on Sony Ericsson. Now Nokia, industry leader and most profitable of all, has also joined the bunch. Nokia has reported reduced sales year on year from 2008. Credit crunch has also affected its distributers ability to finance their inventories, situations that can surely only get worse over the coming months. Nokia has given a reason for this in a press release stated a sharp pull back in Global consumer spending. Blackberry is also struggling, what use do unemployed investment bankers have for Blackberries? The credit needed for the vital

I.

INTRODUCTION

The proposed work includes facts and figures about the industry. This work is greatly based on the statistic reports and surveys. We interviewed many related persons before concluding research. Topic related seminars and conferences also took under consideration before formulating the research findings. A lot of research has also done on the internet which includes online journals, forums, blogging and social networking. In this research, the queries in the mind of general public regarding the subject have been considered. After deeply examining the material, our team has given its verdict about the topic. Telecom Industry is a very vital part of a countrys economy. It is also a big source of employment. The most burning issue nowadays in telecom sector is global recession. Global recession has badly hit

development in the telecom infrastructure is more expensive and less abundant. This is just a glimpse of current economic situation of telecom industry, but there is scope of improvement. In this research, our team has discovered the paths that will leads to the betterment of the industry. There are many areas in which enormous job opportunities could be created [5]. Advancement in the technology is going with rapid pace, creating new horizons of future. The crisis may challenge some businesses, but it will also revitalize the industry and enable new entrants with new technologies to thrive. Technological transformation is at the very heart of our industry, and the industry can emerge stronger and more resilient from these challenging times. Globally, the telecommunications industry was about a $3.7 trillion sector in 2009, including about $1.2 trillion in total revenues in the U.S. (These figures include equipment and related services, as well as subscriber revenues.) [1]. This shows that this industry has a lot of potential to stand any crises. In this paper we propose following measures to reduce job saturation in telecom industry. Global networking is the future. Connect everybody to everybody. Importance of broadband. Rely on technology improvement for better, cheaper and effective results. Develop infrastructure to reach each and every part of the world. Regional cooperation among countries and enhancing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

telecom industry can generate huge revenue as well as new job opportunities. In the 21st century, the importance of broadband can never be overlooked. Today the social and economic development of every country depends on it. Mail has already been transformed into email. Now we have to every service electronically, from e-health to e-education to e-commerce to egovernment. CEO of Ericsson company states that access to telephony as well as Internet, with multimedia solutions for e-business, e-health, elearning, e- banking etc., are all key elements for sustainable development". No doubt, broadband has grown with amazing speed throughout the world, but there are many poor countries where it is still unavailable. Broadband is a cost effective system of providing services and it also reach the whole society. Our goal should be to provide effective and affordable internet to every part of the society. Today, broadband are the basic national infrastructure, just like transport, buildings etc. Telecom is totally a technology related business; reliance on technology enhancement is the only way to provide optimum services that can compete in todays tough competition. All the above mentioned measures not only create new jobs but generate revenue as well. Adopting these steps telecom industry can once again be shifted to success track. II. BIBLIOGRAPHIC STUDY/RELATED WORK

Global networking has become a necessity in the modern corporate structure. Organizations are going global. To stay in touch internationally as they are working locally is the key to success. Communication with the costumer determines your market value, and you can only do this with the help of proper networking facility. In this global village you should be connected to everybody, this is what drives your business. Applying this theme,

To give our research right direction, we should have to know about the history and future of jobs in global telecom industry. In Pakistan, after the establishment of PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) under Telecom Reorganization Act 1996, many countries invested in Pakistan. As a result many telecom companies emerged in Pakistan. Such as Mobilink, ufone, Zong, Telenor etc. These companies greatly enhanced the jobs in telecom sector in Pakistan [6]. In 2007, there were many jobs in U.K for IT graduates. Still now, there is a shortage of IT professionals in the IT industry of U.K over the next 10 years because the number of IT employees is decreasing in U.K. According to research by e-

skills, in order to close the increasing shortage gap of IT professionals, 150,000 professionals must be employed each year in U.K [7]. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the leading observer of the situation of telecom industry. This organization is doing impressive work in terms of finding the current challenges of telecom industry and proposing possible and applicable solutions. http://www.budde.com.au/ is also a large site on the web for telecommunication research. From broadband to wireless networking to satellite communication, almost every topic is covered in this site.

Telecom industry is certainly not protected by this crisis situation. But the world of mobile doesnt seem to be affected. In 2010, 80 out of 100 people have mobile phones.
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2009 2010 2011 2012

Mobile phone subscriber per 100 people globally

Chart showing Mobile subscribers per 100 people Smartphones are and will be the fastest growing category in handset market. They are now substituting PCs in various fields. Nokia, the biggest handset maker is planning to launch handsets that enable m-payment system, user can transfer and transact money, buy air ticket and much more. M-banking is an emerging market trend. According to the mobile entertainment forum, mobile entertainment industry will grow by 28% in 2010 to $40bn [12]. As mentioned earlier, build on broadband, the future prospects of e-trade, e-business, and ecommerce are excellent. According to a research firm, emarketer, US e-commerce sales will expand greater than 5.5% to$135.2bn, and this will further increase in 2011 [12]. The Forrester research suggests that by 2012, 8% of total US retail sales are online. Forester further adds 2.2bn people will start using internet by 2013. According to IDC, a research provider, the online business will flourish by 28.3% in 2010; this shows e-commerce has huge potential in developing world as well. Brazil online sales will rise by 40% in 2010 [4].

III.

RESEARCH WORK

As many countries had become the victim of global recession which further had damage the telecom sector in these countries. In such a situation, the telecom sector can survive by a regional cooperation between countries. This cooperation will result in the enormous investments among the countries, which will provide boost for the telecom sectors. After the world saw the one of the biggest economic quake in late 2008, the good news is the world has come out of the economic downstream, but the bad news is that the economy is not growing as it used to do. According to the latest economic survey released by the economist magazine, the economic growth in 2010 is around 3.7% well below 5% in 2007 [4]. Developed countries are expected to grow 1.7% while developing 5.2%.

4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 2009 2010 2011 2012 World GDP growth

Chart showing World GDP growth

600 500 400 300 200 100 0 2008 2009 2010 2011 Global broadband subscribers , in millions

To increase FDI, government should provide the ideal atmosphere for it, which include infrastructure, loose policies etc. All above mentioned details if properly implemented will decrease job saturation and increase new future job prospects for upcoming graduates. IV. CONCLUSION

Chart showing global broadband users Now take a glimpse of telecom sector in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can be observed by considering the following table.

Foreign Direct Investment in Telecom Sector (US $ million) FDI in Telecom Sector 6.1 13.5 207.1 494.4 1905.1 1824.3 1438.60 Contribution in Total FDI (%) 1.26 1.69 21.13 32.44 54.11 35.60 27.92

We followed the approach that in order to create jobs, telecom companies should start new projects. In this research, we concentrated on masses rather than individuals. The basic idea is that if telecom industry is struggling, it does directly affect the employees. In other words, to make employees satisfied, employer condition should also be satisfactory. If company is suffering deficit, how it hold employees intact and create new job opportunities. The basic target of this research is that how to uplift telecom industry? If industry is booming, ultimately job saturation decreases. In todays high competition environment, only those companies and professional survive which come up with something niche. In this research, those areas are highlighted which have tremendous scope for development. V. FUTURE WORK

Years

Total FDI

2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

484.7 798 979.9 1524 3521.0 5124.9 5152.80

In this paper only some areas are highlighted, certainly there are many more which are yet to be notice. This paper only highlights the regions for development; the in-depth analysis is yet to be made. We just show the directions, technical aspects of these direction are not properly considered, which are left for future discussion VI. REFERENCES

Table showing FDI in telecom sector in Pakistan The table shows huge decline in 2006-07. The latest is not also very impressive. In Pakistan, where telecom sector is highly depending on foreign investment, the FDI ratio is very low. In order to make telecom sector boom, strategies should be made to increase FDI in telecom sector.

[1] ITU- Committed to connecting the world. http://www.itu.int/ (accessed on April 24th, 2010 at 04:09pm) [2] Jawwad rizwan (Feb 15th, 2009) Telecom sector starts cutting jobs, The Pakistani spectator. [3] Jobs abroad, Carrier in Telecommunication http://www.mycareer.edu.pk/ in Pakistan. (Accessed on April 24th, 2010 at 04:45pm)

[4] World in 2010- (John Micklethwait Nov 13th, 2009) The Economist magazine, 24th Edition. [5] How to get a job in a recessional time period SEMINAR by Assistant H.R Executive Mr. Talha Rasool (held on April 10, 2010 at University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila) [6] History, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority http://www.pta.gov.pk/ (Accessed on May 9, 2010 at 04:10pm) [7] Est. 2007 - Telecom graduate jobshttp://www.itjobsforgraduates.com/ (Accessed on May 9, 2010 at 04:35pm) [8] Telecom Economic Indicators http://www.pta.gov.pk/industry (Accessed May 20, 2010 at 10:46pm) [9] Imran Ali (March 1994) Structure of the telecom sector in Pakistan Lahore University of management sciences: 94-02 [10] PTA (2009) Broadband and value added services Annual report 2009: 73-81 [11] Economy of Korea http://www.wikipedia.org/ (accessed May 19, 2010 at 11:00pm) [12] Statistics by http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm/ April 21, 2010 at 02:00am) sector (Accessed MR. TAIMOOR SALEEM has completed his FSc from Punjab College of Information & Technology, Rawalpindi. Now he is the student of Telecommunication Engineering in University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila.

MR. JUNAID ASHFAQ has completed his FSc from Pakistan International School, Riyadh in 2009 with A GRADE. Now he is a student of Telecommunication Engineering in University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila.

Our team is greatly thankful to all the sources mentioned above for helping us out. VII. AUTHORS BIBLIOGRAPHY

MR. SAAD SHAHID KHOKHAR has completed his FSc from F.G Degree colloge for men, Wah Cantt in 2009 with A GRADE. He was awarded a MERIT SCHOLARSHIP CERTIFICATE in 2008 for obtaining A+ grade in FSc part-I. Now he is having a 4 year BSc program in the field of Telecommunication Engineering at University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila.