Memories of Cellular Communications. Part One

This weekend I felt nostalgic and wanted to remember the very beginning of my career. I'll tell you about the explosive growth of mobile communications in the early 2000s and what happened by 2013. Spoiler – half the staff was thrown out on the street.

I will tell the story from two tenses:

1. From today. Where we know all the events that happened and can analyze the causes and effects.

2. From yesterday, or more precisely from the period 2003-2013. They were the years when I studied and started working. I am curious to show how we, young engineers of mobile operators, saw the events. At the same time, I will immerse you in the reality of cellular communications of those years. Harsh, but naive

So, let's get our 2007 back)

How it all began

A few clarifications. The events “from yesterday” will unfold in Chelyabinsk and the surrounding cities. Make allowances if it seems that progress has arrived there late. Moscow probably went this way earlier.

And one more thing. In the process there will be different terms that we used then. I will explain their essence, but I do not claim absolute technical accuracy.

In the 90s, a cell phone was something from the category of heavy luxury. Not everyone had one, it cost a fortune and served more as a status symbol than as a dialer. Everything there was paid for: incoming, outgoing, subscription. Therefore, not everyone could afford it. Far from everyone.

The main technical assumption of the 90s is connected with this. Nobody needs 100% coverage, and the networks are almost not loaded. For example, Chelyabinsk was covered by two CDMAone base stations. The second one covered another half of the Sosnovsky district, adjacent to the city.

The equipment of cellular telephones is mind-bogglingly expensive. It is something from the capitalist future. And it should be serviced by the best. That is, certified specialists with experience in radio communications or some research institute. In those years, if you see a cellular telephone on a tower, you can be sure that this is a really tough fitter. This is a truly qualified specialist.

At the end of the 90s, a whole chain of events is launched. Cellular communications become much more accessible. There are a whole bunch of reasons for this – cell phones became cheaper, there was an influx of subscribers, mass production became cheaper, the standard of living increased, and a huge list of other things. In our story, the consequence is important to us.

The stunning, explosive growth of mobile operators.

Their subscriber base is growing by leaps and bounds. No one understands when it will end. I hear a forecast that soon the number of mobile phones will equal the number of landline phones and then everything will stop.

No way! The constantly published sizes of subscriber bases are mind-boggling. Cellular communications seem like a bottomless pit of money.

In such conditions, mobile operators do not bother with financing. An influx of new subscribers, investments and huge discounts from vendors.

I would like to dwell on the latter separately. In an effort to stake out a clearing, the largest vendors at that time: Alcatel, Qualcomm, Ericsson and Siemens often give away equipment at symbolic prices. Not everything is clear, but only what relates to switches and pilot zones. The plan is simple and reliable – to get the operator hooked and then live on the maintenance and growth of the network.

So what do we have?

1. Cell phones with unlimited budgets.

2. Explosive growth of the subscriber base, and therefore the load. That is, it is necessary to urgently build networks. And it would be good to get into the city of competitors.

3. Cellular communications are complicated. There is radio planning, there are skills to work with specific equipment, there are a lot of pitfalls and almost no experience in operation. Specialists are needed. There are few of them, they are expensive, but see point 1.

From the labor market point of view, it looked like this: a more or less suitable specialist is being hunted into cellular communications. And there are no objections. After all, there are colossal salaries and the rates never end. When it seems that the rates have run out, a new operator comes into town and starts vacuuming the market again.

In Chelyabinsk, the Polet plant actually went under and entire laboratories were laid off. But no one was upset, because these are great guys for new tasks!

Radio engineering students are taken apart and employed long before they graduate.

They are trying to vacuum up the wired connection. But it is not that simple. The wired telephone can pay a lot to qualified specialists (for now). This heats up the salary market even more.

What I heard with my own ears (alas, without proof). With a high workload and all sorts of bonuses in 2002, a cellular engineer received up to 50 thousand rubles. This is some crazy money with an average salary of 4.5 thousand. It is clear that not everyone received exactly 50 thousand or not every month. But the level of x5 from the average salary was definitely there.

Plus – interest-free loans for apartments.

You don't have a sense of deja vu, do you IT specialists?)

Grow and only grow!

Cellular communications are inflated uncontrollably. In 2006, 7 (!!!) operators operate in Chelyabinsk. These are MTS, Megafon, Beeline, Tele2 (still Swedish), Skylink, YUST and UBS CDMA.

1. Most of the communications are second generation. Mainly GSM, but there is one operator CDMAone. The latter is called “CDMA Wireless Communication Node”. This operator will play an important role in our story.

2. Skylink has escaped to the future and broadcasts on CDMA2000, this is the third generation. It makes the main money on mobile Internet. This is an important feature – some operators are specialized and are not tuned for voice.

3. YUST, UBS CDMA – local. There is a big three – MTS, Megafon, Beeline. About Skylink, honestly, I don't remember, it seems to be federal, but not completely. And the cherry on the cake is Swedish Tele2.

4. YUST (South Ural Cellular Telephone) is one of the ten largest operators in Russia, albeit in tenth place. This is important to note, since Chelyabinsk, in principle, has a very strong school of cell operators and developers. Thanks to ChelyabinskSvyazInform, which never clacked its beak.

5. You may ask, where is Rostelecom here? It's not here yet. In the form we are accustomed to, it will appear only in 2011, becoming a harbinger of the end of the solar era. YUST and UBS CDMA are Svyazinform, later they will all become Rostelecom, like Tele2. But for now, Rostelecom is only trunk communication lines. By the way, they are freaking out from the growth of the load and they also need people.

What do mobile operator networks look like technically?

There is a network core, which is traditionally called a switch. Each has its own switch. Only the federals have centralization, but even they have a switch in a large city.

The switch is connected by channels to something large to push traffic further. That's why switches try to stay close to Vorovskogo 71, the long-distance PBX.

Each operator has a fleet of 30-50 base stations per region, all of which are connected to a switch. This is enough for now, but base stations are constantly being built.

Now let's imagine. Seven switches, each with a duty shift. Seven station parks, scattered around the region. There is a department of basic operators. And also the administration, the sales department, developers, contractors. And these are only the cellular operators themselves.

Wired communication is still very strong. In the 90s they worked well and now anyone in Chelyabinsk and the region has a telephone. The region lives on a mix of decade-step, coordinate and electronic stations.

SvyazInform is actively taking these step-by-step ATSs out of operation, replacing them with coordinate and electronic ones. The personnel is being released, but slowly and often immediately into retirement. Those who remain are being given jobs, layoffs are rare so far. But someone needs to build new stations, and this is what development is doing. The newest electronic wired ATSs, for example, EWSD, in a slightly different configuration can work as a cellular switchboard. It turns out that the development of cellular and the development of wired communications are directly competing for engineers.

Maybe someone else is still building and growing? More and more traffic has to be sent between cities. Rostelecom is still small and cannot keep up with all the needs. But there is the newly created (in 1997) TTK, which takes part of the load. Plus, the federals are starting to build their trunk networks.

Somewhere on the horizon, Yandex is growing and Vkontakte has already been launched. So far, federal IT companies have little influence on the market of communications specialists. But the first swallows have already flown to Moscow and St. Petersburg to work in the capital's IT shechka. By the way, the capitals are eating up students quite well. There, the situation is similar for local communications specialists, but there is a bonus to join from the regions.

All this is rolling like a steamroller across the labor market, demanding more and more people.

In absolute numbers there may not be that many, a thousand or two for the whole of Chelyabinsk. But it is important that these rates did not exist before at all!

And in the yard there is an echo of the 90s. A strong drop in the birth rate is multiplied by the dream of many to become a lawyer. Not everyone realizes that the word “engineer” has become not only proud, but also satiated.

New wave

By 2006, the situation has stabilized slightly. There are no new players, the old people have been divided, some have been retrained, some have been fully trained, almost the entire graduates of the Instrument-making Institute and some other faculties have been uprooted. It is becoming harder to find a job again, they are no longer grabbing everyone with their hands. If you have experience, then there is no question, you will find a job right away. But they are starting to treat students with caution. Life in the network is still easy and lucrative, but they are no longer giving interest-free installments, salaries are not growing as much. Effective managers are still reaping the fruits of growth and are not saving yet, although they are figuring out how to start. It is obvious that the industry has swelled incredibly. In short, clouds are starting to gather on the horizon…

But here comes a new kick! People need wired Internet! They need cable TV! Er-Telecom is epically fighting with the local Intersvyaz for Chelyabinsk. PioneerNets are taking over smaller cities. All the student-communications specialists have work again – everyone is pulling. Some are pulling optics, some twisted-pipe cables, some coaxial cables. The work is hard, but it pays. True, there are no longer such strict requirements for education and qualifications, and still, it is closer to the near-communications specialists.

Internet providers are not fools either. They recruit the strongest personnel from the most adequate users with future education, plus they always have vacancies for network operation. This second wave hit the youth the hardest, they form the backbone of future wired telecoms. Coupled with the attempt of mobile operators to start being stubborn “people with experience are needed”, entire releases are merged into the wired Internet. Effective managers are again postponing savings for better times. Someone has to work.

To be continued…