Clearwire cross-breeding engineers

A fundamental understanding of IP is also necessary on the operations side, Storch said. The focus of wireless networks has been on routing phone calls where the content of the call was unimportant to how it was switched on the network. In an IP data world, the networks support any number of applications, all of which must be managed differently, Storch said. “We’re not manipulating the content—we don’t change the bit—but it’s very important we treat a file-transfer bit differently than we would a video-chat bit,” he said. “Our networks have to be prepared, operated and optimized to handle not only the volume of traffic but all of the varieties and types of traffic.”

CROSS-BREEDING A HYBRID WORKER

In three to five years, Storch estimated, Clearwire’s ideal worker -- with the proper cross-section of IP, public network and wireless skills -- will emerge. Clearwire will train many of those technicians and engineers itself, but Storch believes that the dictates of new 4G networks will create such a workforce more organically.

When the wireless industry emerged in the 1990s, there wasn’t a ready-made wireless workforce waiting. It developed slowly, drawing from two distinct industries: two-way radio communications and telecom switching. Those industries cross-bred, said Storch, who came into the wireless industry from radio.

“We became the wireless telecom profession,” Storch said. “I think you’ll see the same thing happen here. You’ll have the traditional telecom folk, who have that large public wireless network knowledge, and the IT professionals, who have that Internet Protocol environment background, coming together, and in the future, they’ll become these hybrid professionals.”