Contact Information:

 

Thomas H. Smith, Jr.

110 Mohawk Trail

Wilmington, NC 28409

 

910-409-1985 Cell

 

e-mail: thsisthe1@gmail.com

 

Objective:

 

Obtain a management level position where I can contribute my experience in telecommunication network 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. I have successfully planned, designed and managed many small rural & large urban wire centers, central office moves, highway conflicts, interoffice trunking, long haul and fiber to the premise projects.

 

 

Professional Experience:

 

01/2010 to current – Contract Engineer for AT&T responsible for designing Outside Plant Engineering authorizations for various projects ranging from growth oriented copper, fiber, FTTC, to highway road move conflicts and fiber to cellular sites throughout the Carolinas. The projects are drawn and prepared with propriety computer programs such as BSTCad, JMS, OSPCM, OPEDS, LFACS and PM Tool.

 

9/2006 to 12/31/2009 – Verizon Maryland, Inc. – Network Engineering FTTP 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.

 

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.

 

11/2000 to 12/2003 - Business Telecom, Inc. (BTI) a CLEC headquartered in Raleigh, NC – Director  - 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.

 

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 with emphasis on Drafting, English and Math.

 

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

Outside Plant Engineering – BasicOSP Conduit Design

Outside Plant Engineering – IntermediatePair 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 PlanningLoop Electronics – DMS1 Urban

JMOS Design Center EngineerLoop 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 OverviewUnderstanding Basics - Internet Protocols IP, TCP & VDP

Electromagnetic Energy & Radio Transmission (Cellular) VOIP Overview

Cellular Radio Basics IP Address & Routing, Internet Protocols

Cellular Call BasicsTransmission 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, PM Tool, etc.)