Now that the National Broadband Network is well underway, it’s becoming more important to communicate with the home owner face-to-face during the actual installation. Dimi Kyriakou investigates this new possibility for the custom installer.

Those in the connected home industry are typically well-versed in the workings of the National Broadband Network (NBN), but the average consumer doesn’t always know what the process involves when it’s being connected outside their door.

Given this, it may be necessary for an installer to work with the home owner and explain the grey areas to them when the NBN is being connected. This possibility was also debated last year at the Queensland NBN Workforce Summit, an event designed to engage stakeholders from industry, training and government to discuss the workforce requirements for the NBN in the State.

From this Summit, attendees believed there was a need for a trained person to interface with the customer while their home or business was being connected to the NBN. They may be required to ‘audit’ the quality of existing cabling in the building, as well as let the customer know about any possible deficiencies in the cabling that may hinder the installation overall.

Ramsden Telecommunications Training is a national Registered Training Organisation (RTO) that specialises in telecommunications and director Bevan Ramsden says this new job role is important from both a technical and communications point of view.

“The NBN stops at the front door in a box on the wall, but you have to get it from there to a customer’s television, laptop or phone. If accepted, this could be quite a vital role because it’s like the last link in the chain – if there is a missing link that doesn’t go from the termination point to the customer’s equipment effectively, it will drop off the end of the precipice,” he says.

“It’s important to produce a quality broadband product that reaches all of the relevant equipment inside a home, especially considering the number of homes that will connect to the NBN.”

As every building in Australia comes from a different era, the quality of existing cabling is also an issue to consider. Some new homes and premises have good cabling and will only need a connection point, whereas older homes and premises may have inferior, inadequate cabling that can’t interface between the NBN and the customer’s equipment.

Bevan says the person who is shouldered with this responsibility will need to be skilled in specialist cabling competencies and know how to test the cable to make sure it works properly. Most importantly, they will have to translate the technical talk into something that the customer can easily understand. This may involve explaining the available service options and what steps need to be taken to ensure the NBN can be connected and distributed as planned.

“In some cases, associated cabling or equipment like a wireless router may need to be installed to get the best out of the NBN services. Retail service providers are offering services to customers over the NBN, so they will also need to have a person going to the house to audit the quality of the existing cabling and provide advice to the customer,” he says.

Given that the NBN rollout has already begun, Bevan says that such a role would need to be implemented quickly, with training to begin as soon as possible this year.

“The competencies that are needed are fairly easy to establish. I think a body like the Innovation and Business Skills Australia (IBSA) could look at gathering a collection of competencies that would define this particular job role or produce a skills set that training providers could use to create a short training program to up-skill people in this area,” he says.

“Then there will be a demand from the market and retail service providers who need these people and the training organisations will be able to produce them.”

Ramsden Telecommunications Training is one such body that offers a range of courses that could be readily used to help an individual train up to perform this role in the NBN. These courses cover cable testing, connecting the termination box to the internet or television inside a home, integrating a small switch or wireless router to distribute the internet to various computers or providing advice to customers during the actual installation.

“These competencies would up-skill that person to do the job and the courses can be organised very easily. Other RTOs in Australia offer them as well and all can be delivered out of the Telecommunications Training package,” he says.

“We would be very happy to offer these courses to technicians and we are able to do so right now – but first there are some loose ends that need to be tied up.”

Contact:
Ramsden Telecommunications Training
www.ramsdentraining.com.au