For exactly three weeks, employees of various departments of mobile network of the Ucom’s Technical Directorate once again shared their professional skills, knowledge and know-hows in telecommunications field with ten students from the Faculty of Information and Telecommunication Technologies and Electronics of the National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA).
The internship was held in 8 departments, including those of Radio Network Planning and Optimization, Radio Network Operation (BSS: Basic Service Set), Service Quality Control (AQP: Advanced Quality Planning) and Transmission Department. The students took part in the works on the localization of the new station, defined the main parameters, integrated them, and operated the station software. Future radio engineers monitored how mobile network management systems were maintained, analyzed station statistics, ensured connectivity between all stations and the mobile core network, as well as international connectivity.
With the help of specific software packages, “I conduct a drive-test, through which I study the quality and coverage of the network,” said student Nune Baghdasaryan.
“During the internship period at Ucom, we studied the operations of all departments: we were in the radio one, we were engaged in planning, installed stations, visited AQP, answered subscribers’ questions, we opened tickets, redirected them to the relevant departments, which could give solutions on a more serious level. I liked Radio Department and BSS because those seem more interesting, and you have a deeper understanding of what profession you are studying and how you will subsequently work in this role. We have 5 female students on the course, both girls and boys study equally, but mostly it is girls who want to work at Ucom,” said Tamara Poghosyan, 4th year student of the Faculty of Telecommunications and Signal Processing of NPUA.
Both Liliya Husikyan, the Head of the Polytechnic University students’ internship and Senior radio network engineer at Ucom, and Armen Ayvazyan, Head of the Mobile Department, strictly ensured that future colleagues also learn to monitor the operation of stations through a 24/7 system, notice problems, analyze the alarms and offer solutions.
“We attach great importance to cooperation with the National Polytechnic University of Armenia. This year, 10 students completed an internship with us, during which they got acquainted with a number of technical professions and realized how to pave their career path in our company, saw our technical team, understood how much they can learn from us. They’ve spent their internship both in the office and on the streets of the capital city, conducting drive tests; as well as in the regions, visiting base stations; they figured out how they could apply their theoretical knowledge in practice and what practical skills they would need to develop in order to really start working. I believe that this is a model of mutually beneficial cooperation, because it is these students who have shown high involvement and the best results that are our primary candidates for replenishing entry-level technical vacancies,” said Viktorya Baghdasaryan, Director of Human Resources Management and Organizational Development at Ucom.
At the end of the internship, with the support of the Ucom Stations’ Operation and Maintenance Department staff, the students once again visited one of the regions of the country to understand how stations are maintained and how the failed equipment is being replaced, namely, the antennas, modules, cables, generators and batteries.