Technology is at the forefront of every industry—from finance to manufacturing, and from the arts to sports. We are in a world where, if you are even remotely in the know, you can name at least one celebrity engineer or scientist. The scientists and engineers pushing the boundaries of what is possible are now receiving the recognition that was once reserved for pop stars. Engineers turned CEOs, like Robert F. Smith (Chemical Engineer at Kraft General Foods, now CEO of Vista Equity Partners) and Mark Cuban (Founder of AudioNet and now CEO of Cost Plus Drugs), have become role models for what young technologists aspire to be.
What I've noticed about this celebrity engineer craze is that there are many different fields these engineers hail from, but one field I don’t often see represented is telecommunications. Most modern technology is propped up by services implemented and designed by network engineers, yet you don’t see Comcast or AT&T churning out celebrity engineers. You don’t hear about a telecom startup causing a global sensation. Why might that be?
The Internet
Anyone in the field of network engineering understands that the Internet is a massive network (the largest network) composed of all the smaller networks on the planet. This is something we inherently know, and anyone who implements or troubleshoots WANs secretly—or maybe not so secretly—takes pride in playing a part in it. Across the seven layers of the OSI model (or the four layers of the TCP/IP model), everything that happens over the bits, packets, and frames of the network is implemented, troubleshot, and monitored by a network engineer.
This gives a tremendous amount of influence to backbone, carrier, and enterprise-level engineers in how humanity communicates. I believe the ease of communication in the 21st century is woefully taken for granted. If you disagree, try handwriting a letter, putting it in the mailbox, and waiting for it to arrive. Then tell me if you prefer that to a text message.
The Power of a Telecommunications Engineer
Because of this, I think telecommunications engineers hold significant power—not just in their technical roles, but also in shaping the ethical philosophy of this field. In the little over 20 years since Y2K (if you’re old enough to remember that, it might be time for your quarterly doctor visit), we’ve seen technological advancements that previously took centuries to achieve. The Internet is the catalyst that has accelerated these changes. It has enabled global collaboration, near-instantaneous access to humanity's collective knowledge, and tools to program and build in the cloud. These advancements have fueled every subsequent technological revolution, from genome mapping to communication with geosynchronous satellites—and everything in between.
I believe we’ve given up too quickly on the cool things and rockstar engineers that the Internet (the backbone of innovation) can produce. This blog’s overall message will highlight those things and get some of the world’s network engineers to think about the amazing things they can do outside of maintenance windows and OAM.
Celebrity Telecommunications Engineers
I believe it’s past time for network engineers to be recognized alongside their mechanical and software engineering peers. This recognition starts with being more vocal and innovative in communicating changes within the field. Gone are the days of star telecom scientists from Bell Labs, like Shirley Ann Jackson, who took her background in theoretical physics and applied it to fiber optic cable technology.
So who has taken her place? Who is the Mustafa Suleyman of telecommunications? Or has the industry aged to the point where innovation has stalled? Is telecommunications simply the infrastructure running quietly in the background—like an older person trying too hard to fit in—past its stage of being "cool" technology?
Final Thoughts
In 2020, I watched an experiment conducted on the ISS (International Space Station), where an astronaut tested the viability of manufacturing fiber optic cable in space. The rationale was simple: space offers an ultra-clean environment, 250 km above Earth's dusty surface. (I’ll delve into the details of this in another article). This experiment could represent the first step in establishing a practical and feasible space manufacturing industry—and that’s exciting.
We are now five years away from the bicentennial of telecommunications. From the invention of electrical signals via the telegraph to electric signals over copper and switched networks, to IP addressing, photon transmission through glass, and satellite Internet beamed to any location on Earth, telecommunications has continually evolved. These innovations have enabled seamless communication between humans, not only on Earth but also in space.
As we approach a paradigm shift in human interconnectedness and even a potential untethering from our home planet, the question remains: how will telecommunications evolve? And who will be the superstars leading this transformation?