Today December 16th is my 50th anniversary of joining the old NZPO Telecom division and a Junior Mechanician at the Mt Roskill step office here in Auckland.

It’s funny how when you measure out 50 years it always falls on the same calendar day as it was 50 years ago, in this case Monday.  Soon learned that reading batteries without a dust coat on would lead to holly pairs of jeans.  Since then I have seen the Good, Bad and the Ugly of the industry.

The good in the 1990 ~ 2010, The bad = now and the Ugly in the old NZPO days of bloated Bureaucracy and suppress all thoughts of better technology and processes.  

Currently the CPE (PBX) industry I’m in now I feel is in a downward spiral with a race to the bottom being allot of the current resellers and dealer philosophy these days.  Next year I think will be my last in the industry as quite frankly I’m sick of it. The dumbing down way we are going, people who can't read manuals and tech bulletins even where they are given to them on training courses...

If I were to start again from school I would go into the IT industry as my son has done.   The only part of the telco industry that seems to be going anywhere at present is the cellular carrier side and I have a feeling that will go the same way as they become a dumb pipe over the next 5 ~ 10 years..

Lets see what the next 50 years brings.   Roll on the communications implants  ..