Contact Information:             

 

Thomas H. Smith, Jr.

110 Mohawk Trail             

Wilmington, NC 28409

 

910-409-1985 Cell

 

e-mail: tomsmith1985@att.net

 

Objective:

 

Obtain a position where I can contribute and expand my experience in utility design and management.

 

Summary of Qualifications:

 

I am well trained and have experience designing and managing OSP (Out Side Plant) networks for telecommunications. I am self motivated; well organized, possess strong verbal communication skills, excellent written communication skills and are advanced in PC use, especially Excel and Word software. I have managed union & non-union craft and management employees. I am comfortable contributing as a manager or a subordinate with equal enthusiasm and I enjoy learning new technologies.

 

Professional Experience:

 

1/2010 to current – Retired, it’s not my cup of tea, ready to get back to work, I’m 58 years old, in excellent health and have skills to help build and organize telecommunication networks for at least 10 – 12 more years.

 

9/2006 to 12/31/2009 – Verizon Maryland, Inc. – Network Engineering FTTP Project Manager & Planner responsible for planning FTTP (Fiber To The Premise) facilities for newly identified wire centers. This work includes planning the central office equipment associated with the FTTP facilities as well as the Fiber Distribution Areas for Single Family Units, Multi-family Dwelling Units, and Commercial Units in the OSP environment. I am also responsible for budgeting, project submittals and approvals for the projects identified in the planning processes. Verizon made a 10B commitment to it’s new FTTP technology, typical individual wire center expenditures ranged from 15M to 50M.

 

9/2005 to 9/2006 – Verizon Maryland, Inc. – Network Engineering Project Manager responsible for the implementation and coordination of FTTP– MDU (Multi-family Dwelling Units) for the state of Maryland. Responsibilities include identifying MDU units, organizing right of way efforts, assigning site surveys, detailed engineering, job review, approval and routing approved jobs to construction. Other FTTP duties involve contract coordination, maintaining spreadsheets and Access databases to allow efficient tracking and reporting to/for higher management.

 

9/2004 to 9/2005 – Verizon Maryland, Inc. – Network Engineering Contract Coordinator responsible for reviewing jobs prepared by contract engineering forces to ensure adherence to established methods, procedures and practices. This involved providing FTTP training and updates as well as tracking invoices for payment including building and maintaining a database to ensure proper billing per the contract. Created and maintained the “ Maryland Big Rules” document, which contained the latest information on practices and lessons learned and is still in use today as the guiding document for Verizon core employees and contract engineering forces.

 

01/2004 to 9/2004 – RJE Telecom, LLC – Project Manager FTTP Engineering – As Project Manager I was responsible for leading a team to design FTTP facilities to SFU (Single Family Units) in assigned wire centers. This was the first application of FTTP after initial field trials and involved teaching OSP Engineers the proprietary architecture to enable them to design FDA’s (Fiber Distribution Areas) in Maryland. These duties included close coordination between my team, client planning and management to ensure the greatest positive impact for the client’s growth plans as well as to provide data for the client to manage and monitor the project. After working for a short period of time I was asked to come to work directly for Verizon.

 

11/2001 to 12/2003 - Business Telecom, Inc. (BTI) a CLEC headquartered in Raleigh, NC – Vice President Network Planning and Engineering - Responsible for the day to day operations of growing and maintaining the “physical” side of the Network that included the Outside Plant (OSP), Switch & Traffic Planning, Central Office Equipment (COE), OSP Engineering, the COE Installation group, construction, testing, turn up, commissioning and maintenance necessary to operate a 4,650 mile fiber optic network that ranges from New York to Miami, Savannah to Nashville. These duties additionally included managing the budget (28M), negotiating IRU agreements with, other CLEC’s, CATV’s, and ILEC’s, Emergency Restoration contracts, purchasing land, buildings, right of ways across Federal, State, local municipalities & private properties, obtaining permits, zoning, construction contracts, and equipment necessary to allow new facilities to be constructed and maintained. The network consisted of (14) 5ESS Lucent switches, an ATM/Frame Relay Network and a long haul system containing over 60 POP sites supporting numerous layers of high speed BLSR SONET rings to most Tier 1 towns in the southeast United States. The position ended upon the purchase of BTI by a competitor.

 

11/2000 to 11/2001 - Business Telecom, Inc. (BTI) a CLEC headquartered in Raleigh, NC – Director Network Planning and Engineering. Responsible for creating and organizing records for the growing network, fiber and equipment assignments, building a budget process, an approval process, managing vendors, inspections, etc.  associated with the OSP network.

 

8/2000 to 11/2000 – Business Telecom, Inc. (BTI) – Project Manager – Hired as Project Manager for a $60M, 406 mile fiber optic cable route from Raleigh, NC to Savannah, GA. The project involved establishing remote regeneration and POP sites, crossing 29 bodies of water and proposed the longest horizontal directional drill ever proposed (6,200’ – Wando River – Mt. Pleasant, SC to Daniel Island, SC) to avoid the proposed Charleston, SC Cooper River Bridge replacement project. Once this project was underway, I was asked to accept a promotion to Director – Network Planning and Engineering for BTI.

 

11/1995 to 8/2000 – BellSouth/Parsons – Project Manager - Managed a Distribution Design team of O.S.P. Engineers in the east district of NC with responsibilities for fifteen (15) wire centers located in the Raleigh, NC area. The team was responsible for providing copper and fiber optic distribution facilities for new growth.

 

1/1977 to 11/1995 – BellSouth - Outside Plant Facilities Engineer – Wilmington, NC - As an OSP Engineer I designed projects triggered by growth, rehabilitation, area transfers, central office moves, highway/road/street conflicts, inter-office and long haul trunking needs. The magnitude of this work ranged from small routine jobs for wire placement in rural areas, to engineering very large undertakings, involving all classes of structures, cable and plant in busy suburban/urban areas utilizing many different technologies such as POTS (Plain Old Tel. Service), T-1, DLC (Digital Loop Carrier), SLC 96 (Subscriber Loop Carrier), Series 5, Multiplexers, SONET, BLSR (Bi-directional Line Switched Ring), Marconi, Fujitsu, FITL (Fiber In The Loop), FTTC (Fiber To The Curb), FTTP (Fiber To The Premise), etc. Additionally, I have managed a Right Of Way (R.O.W.) team to negotiate and acquire over 3,000 strip ROW’s and hundred’s of site easements.

 

Education

 

John T. Hoggard High School, Wilmington, NC, Graduated in 1973 with emphasis on Drafting, English and Math.

 

Executive Park Learning Center, Atlanta, GA, Various Telecommunications Engineering Courses:

Outside Plant Engineering – Basic                                          OSP Conduit Design

Outside Plant Engineering – Intermediate                            Pair Gain Systems – Facilities

Outside Plant Engineering – Advanced                                           Lightwave Engineering

Outside Plant Engineering Economics                                           Digital Facility Design

Outside Plant Feeder Guidelines                                           Loop Electronics – SLC Series 5

Outside Plant Planning                                                        Loop Electronics – DMS1 Urban             

JMOS Design Center Engineer                                          Loop Electronics – Integrating Digital Loop Carrier

 

BellSouth Workshops: Interdepartmental Management  Orientation (IMOP), Communications Workshop, Advanced Driver Performance, Productive Meetings, Test Set/Meter Use, Advanced Defensive Driving, First Aid & Personal Safety, Safety Proficiency Training, Effective Meetings, Effective Writing, Railroad Safety, Effective Reading Speed Reading,  and many more vendor sponsored classes and seminars covering a wide range of equipment and grounding issues.

 

Verizon NetLearn Courses:

Basic Data Concepts and Transmission                                          Introduction to Telecommunications Switching

Introduction to Transmission Systems                                          Introduction to Network Control

Basics of Small Office Home Office (SOHO) Networking               ATM Technology Overview

Fiber To The Premise (FTTP) Overview                                           Access 2003

Fiber To The Premise (FTTP) Video Overview                            Understanding Basics - Internet Protocols IP, TCP & VDP

Electromagnetic Energy & Radio Transmission (Cellular)               VOIP Overview

Cellular Radio Basics                                                        IP Address & Routing, Internet Protocols

Cellular Call Basics                                                                      Transmission Control Protocol and User Datagram Protocol

 

Computer Systems Experience

 

MicroSoft Access, Excel, Power Point  & Word, AutoCad, MicroStation, VisiO, MapInfo, Lotus Open Notes, PeopleSoft and various “custom” programs of BellSouth & Verizon (EFRAP, JMOS, BSTCAD, LFACS, CMA, MDU Inventory, IVAPP, ICGS, IDDS, BCAS, BDMS, PeopleSoft, etc.)

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