Professional Summary

Mr. Thoma has extensive experience as a fiber splicer, cable plant designer and installation project manager with 17 years experience in telecommunications construction, installation, operations, project management, and design. Thoma has worked as a senior telecommunications technician, in fiber, copper, and wireless networks. He has hands-on field experience in retail, office, campus, metropolitan, and long-haul carrier network environments, working on inside plant, outside plant, and wireless networks.

 

As a telecommunications technician, Thoma has performed facility operations and maintenance duties, including testing, troubleshooting, and preventative maintenance of Macro and DAS facilities, performing troubleshooting and maintenance on Sprint CDMA, WiMax, LTE and iDEN BTS equipment, T1 circuit and fiber optic backhaul for Sprint/Ericsson as a field technician.  Thoma has also worked as a project manager and estimator, working with RF engineers to design and install BDA/DAS systems coax and fiber distribution solutions for industrial environments, university campuses and stadiums, healthcare campuses, and commercial/retail properties.

 

He also has worked extensively on battery plant, AC-DC inverter systems, -48vDC power plants, optoelectronic SONET equipment, generators and transfer switches.  As an optical fiber splicer, Thoma has performed move/add/change maintenance splicing, emergency restoration OSP fiber splicing, field engineering, and cable location.  Mr. Thoma has performed final construction punch-list, review, acceptance and commissioning of several carrier POP and ILA sites in a global DWDM-SONET fiber optic network. 

 

While working for a nationwide telecommunications contractor Thoma performed structured cable plant design, OSP design, and evaluation of networks for capacity, and points of failure.    Drawing on training and field experience, Mr. Thoma has supervised other telecommunications technicians, managed multiple simultaneous installation projects, and performed sales engineering and project management of telecommunications installations in manufacturing, commercial, defense, education, and health-care environments.  Thoma has worked with product vendors, manufacturer’s representatives, general contractors, installation crew supervisors, and owners and their consultants,.

 

Thoma has worked as a telecommunications project estimator, evaluating incoming RFP documents, and designed structured-cabling solutions for distributed antenna systems,  local area networks, wide area networks, inside plant and OSP.   He can create scopes of work, labor and material estimates, assemble bid-submission packages, and negotiate operating agreements with clients.

 

As a Telecommunications project manager Mr. Thoma has managed a multi-phase LAN network installation project in a 4000 store retail chain across the US and Canada with approximately 500 subcontractors, performing over 80 installations per week over 17 months. 

 

 

 

 

 

Professional Experience

 

Ipanema Solutions LLC

Field Project Manager/Field Installation SupervisorJanuary 2014-July 2014

●                                                                               Manage Technology Installations and Integrations projects-Hospitality Industry properties including converting properties from DirectTV Satellite to Comcast Q2Q, and channel insertion

●                                                                               Supervise in-house and contractor installation technicians

●                                                                               Implementation of mesh and managed WiFi solutions, perform “heat map” testing for WiFi coverage optimization, site survey physical environments for obstacles to signal propagation and propose additional or relocated access points.

●                                                                               Perform

●                                                                               Daily reporting of production, projections, and timeline challenges to management and stakeholders

 

Data Workforce [Sprint | Ericsson]

RF Operations TechnicianDec 2012-January 2014

●                                                                               Troubleshoot, repair, and maintain Sprint equipment( legacy Motorola iDEN, Lucent CDMA BTS). Test and troubleshoot amplifiers, filters, carrier cards, T1 backhaul circuits

●                                                                               Troubleshoot, repair and maintain Samsung LTE 4G equipment.

●                                                                               Drive test cell sectors for call quality/drop issues, perform 911 testing.

●                                                                               Test macro site antenna performance against expected parameters, flag outliers for replacement

●                                                                               Performed maintenance during staggered phase-out of on-air iDEN BTS macro sites, re-distributed working equipment from decommissioned sites to on-air sites

●                                                                               Troubleshoot, repair, and maintain ClearWire WiMax equipment

●                                                                               Troubleshoot, repair, and maintain Distributed Antenna/Bidirectional Antenna systems in Commercial, Retail, and Heavy Industrial installations (Hospitals, Offices, Automobile Assembly plants)

●                                                                               Troubleshoot BDA system coverage issues, map coverage within buildings, work with RF engineers to improve performance and coverage, identify dead spots. Redirect donor antennas to identified alternate Cells and Sectors

●                                                                               Used various diagnostic tools and RF test equipment in performing work, including Lucent RMT, Anritsu CellMaster, Sunset T1 test set et al.

●                                                                               Resolve trouble tickets, order and install replacement hardware, audit and RMA site equipment.  Carrier Addition and capacity upgrades.  Report, and resolve site issues.

 

Kentucky Data Link (KDL) / Windstream Communications, Evansville IN/Little Rock AR 

Fiber Splicer II – OSP OperationsDec 2009-Dec 2012

●                                                                               Emergency restoration and Scheduled fusion splicing - Central Office, POP, Cell Towers and OSP locations.  Perform OSP Plant construction and emergency repairs.

●                                                                               Troubleshoot, repair, audit, and field engineer long-haul fiber optic circuits. 

●                                                                               Work from field with Fiber Engineering Department and Field Operations on repairs and changes to network design, identify and resolve conflicts between existing circuit documentation and transport objectives. Audit physical plant assets for additional optical circuit paths for new orders. Documents changes to Outside Plant facilities

●                                                                               Interface with Field Engineers from other carriers, dark fiber customers

●                                                                               Operator - Aerial Lift truck, Mobile Fiber Splicing Laboratory, tools and equipment.

 

DakoTech, Ann Arbor MI 

Account Manager – Structured-cabling Project ManagerJanuary 2008-Nov 2009

●                                                                               Responsible for acquiring new clients for IT services firm, retaining existing client base. 

●                                                                               Meet with IT decision–makers, identified technology needs, designed IT solutions. Presented sales proposals, negotiated contracts, managed installation projects.

●                                                                               Maintained long-term client relationships, created marketing and sales materials for presentations, trade fairs, direct mail in several SE Michigan markets.

 

Fujitsu Transaction Solutions, Frisco TX

Project Manager - Structured Wiring, North America (Contractor) July 2006-Nov 2007

●                                                                               Managed subcontractors in nationwide POS Ethernet installation project. Oversaw Cat5e cabling, network equipment installations in 4000 store retail chain in US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Philippines and Guam. Coordination with Logistics team to ensure hardware and cabling arrived onsite for contractors.  Resolved customer and subcontractors quality issues, damage restoration, project delays, and local code and labor requirements.
Verified permitting and compliance with AHJ regs.

●                                                                               Managed installation for pilot RFID shelf-label project, Staples stores.

●                                                                               Prepared cabling and installation labor and materials estimates for new projects to support bid process

●                                                                               Hired and oversaw local subcontractors, Maintained nationwide vendor info database including regional labor rates. Prepared Scope of Work documents, issued purchase orders. Reviewed completion documents, processed vendor invoices. Managed costs and project profit margins.

 

Advanced Communications Inc. /Intelligent Choice LLC, Canton MI

Project Planning Manager, Project Estimator, Sales Engineer April 2004-May 2006

●                                                                               DAS/BDA Project - Surveyed locations with RF engineers to design BDA/DAS, select appropriate propagation pattern antennas to suit the various environments: Omnidirectional, Yagi, Radiating Cable, etc. with respect to back-haul considerations.  Design optical fiber and copper media cable plant solutions to connect all equipment in BDA/Distributed Antenna installations. Managed installation of antennas, recievers, and repeaters, fiber and coaxial cabling for Nextel 800/900Mhz iDEN and Sprint1.9Ghz CDMA systems.

●                                                                               OSP Cabling Engineer- Performed site surveys, pole counts, assessed pole attachments , submitted routes to utilities for make-ready work.  Prepared labor and materials estimates for projects.

●                                                                               Sales Engineer- Generated sales leads, submitted proposals; sales presentations. Reviewed RFP packages.

●                                                                               Estimator - Submitted competitive bid packages, schedules of values, AIA forms and other project documents. Pulled permits from municipalities, oversaw code compliance..

●                                                                               Negotiator – Obtained project and volume pricing and availability commitments from manufacturers and distributors for multiple simultaneous communications projects.

●                                                                               Ensured conformance to ongoing SLAs, industry standards and municipal codes.

●                                                                               Trainer - project-specific in-service training of field supervisors and technicians.

 

DakoTech, Ann Arbor MI 

Service/Installation Technician May 2002-April 2004

●                                                                               LAN network installation, Commercial and Residential

●                                                                               Consultant on design and implementation of  LAN network installations

●                                                                               Trainer/instructor - physical cabling techniques and practices

 

Ramzey Broadband, Warren MI 

Quality Control Inspector, Field Supervisor Feb. 2002-May 2002

●                                                                               Field Customer Satisfaction- Resolved customer complaints.  Arranged repairs, changes, or compensation. Responsible for overall crew production quality

●                                                                               Quality Control Inspector- Ensured SLA standards, verified work in-spec with MSO client. 

 

 

 

 

Level (3) Communications, Southfield MI, Broomfield CO 

Optical Fiber Technician II, Intercity Field Operations June 2000-Jan. 2002

●                                                                               Performed punchlist closeouts with vendors, contracotrs in Turn-up and Test of Michigan-Indiana segments of OC192 DWDM SONET fiber ring, In-Line Amplifier facilities, OSP cable plant and facilities.

●                                                                               Fiber Splicer -Emergency Restoration / Moves-Adds-Changes. Oversee emergency restoration construction and splicing contractors

●                                                                               Field Service Technician OC192 signal transport equipment, Cross-connects, LAN equipment maintenance, alarm systems, access control, cathodic protection systems, -48v power plant, UPS, HVAC and back-up generator systems.  OSP maintenance, surveillance.

●                                                                               Created operations documents for new POP/ILA sites as they were placed online.

●                                                                               Liaison with DOW, Railroad, Public Utilities, Municipalities, and other Carriers.  Represented carrier in Joint Meetings addressing route conflicts, right-of-way and easement issues.

 

Advanced Communications Incorporated, Westland MI December 1995-June 2000

●        Lead Optical Fiber Splicing Technician for campus backbone and OSP Construction projects. Trained new fiber splicers. Performed fiber audits, hot cuts, moves-adds-changes to active OSP fiber backbone. Installed fiber nodes, created plant distribution diagrams from audit data

●        Supervisor Cat5/Ethernet/LAN installation – supervised up to 20 technicians in LAN and MDF construction projects in education, commercial, office environments.

●                                                                               Supervisor CATV installations residential and MDU –supervised up to 35 technicians performing hundreds of installations daily

●                                                                               Instructor-CATV Technician Basic Skills; residential cabling, ladder safety, bonding, and signal flow logic.  Developed training program materials for use.

●                                                                               CATV Brodband RF Ingress/Egress sweep testing

●                                                                               Quality Assurance/ Safety Inspector - monitored technicians for compliance with quality and safety standards, resolved damage complaints with customers, retrained or disciplined technicians as needed to correct behaviors.

 

 

Education

●  Monroe Catholic Central High School  College Prep concentration: Latin, Spanish, Editor School Paper, Publisher Independent Student Paper                              Graduated 1986

●  University of Toledo Major in Communications/Public Relations, Elected Governor: Student Union Board-Lectures committee                                                          Fall 1986 - Winter 1988

●  Monroe County Community College Journalism and Communications, Public Law and Government, Philosophy                              Winter 1989, Fall 1994-Spring1995

Related Certifications and Training

●  BICSI Registered Communications Cabling Designer (RCDD) Certification

Will be sitting for certification exam fall 2014

●  CCTV Access Control-design/estimation BICSI continuing-ed credit course 2005

●  Benzine/Coke Gas Emissions/Respirator Safety R. Meister training November 2004

●  CBT Web-category 5 cabling (8 hrs.), structured cabling (8 hrs.), and fiber optics (eight hrs.)  July 1999

●  Level(3) Outside Plant Technician Course- Underground Facilities, Fiber Optics installation and Maintenance, Jobsite and Railroad Safety,  First Aid and CPR  July 11-18 2000

●  Railroad ROW Safety Training-Norfolk Southern RR et al.June/July 2000

●  Confined Space Entry-procedures/safety OSHA Required Training

●  Sumitomo Electric Lightwave Optical Fusion Splicer Type 63, Skill Level A:  Use and General Maintenance  July 14, 2000

●  Nortel Networks OPTera Connect DX/LH/MOR OM&P Certification  November 2001

●  Level (3) Communications Thinkspace Web-based Training Lockout-Tag out, Trench Safety, Ergonomics, Railroad Safety et al.  July 2000-Jan 2003

 

 

Awards / Achievements

Kentucky Data Link / Q-Comm – Q-Excellence Award winner 2010

Nominee, Level (3) Communications - Circle of Excellence 2000

“Demonstrating leadership with passion, exceeding customer expectations, learning continuously, achieving results, being disruptive, and thinking like an owner”

●  Long-Distance Runner North Country Trail Run–4^th  in age class – September 20, 2003, Martian Marathon, Dearborn MI 2014 – Finisher, Michigan Mile 25^th place 6m01s – August 22, 2014

●  Hobby Viticulturalist – Thoma maintains a small vineyard of French-American Hybrid winegrapes on his family’s Centennial Farm in SE Michigan

 

Mr. Thoma is a member of:

Building Industry Consulting Service International (BICSI) – a telecommunications organization,

Michigan Centennial Farm Association, Michigan Barn Preservation Network.

Southeast Michigan Winemakers Club

 

 

September 2014 RESUME-RF