Equipment World

November 2015

Equipment World Digital Magazine

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I n an effort to meet massive telecom fi ber construc- tion needs, telecom services provider Ericsson is joining with Ditch Witch and Vermeer to create a template to recruit, train and deploy multiple trenchless crews in major metropolitan areas across the United States. The companies made the joint announcement at the ICUEE trade show. "Our ambition is to add a new supply of skilled trained crews to give us the ability to realize peak demand in large fi ber builds," says Ed Delong, Erics- son's vice president, fi ber and outside plant for North America. Delong says Ericsson could take a tradi- tional approach and simply steal skilled workers from contractors and others; instead the company wants to create a new workforce. "In essence, we're creating a new construction com- pany here," Delong says, of the effort, which he states won't shut out trenchless contractors. Ericsson will con- tract out at least half of the available work and use the new workers for the rest in an effort to provide "un- matched scalability and startup times for its customer fi ber projects." Initial efforts will concentrate on experimenting on ways to recruit and train the new Ericsson workers. At least at fi rst, Ericsson will rely on its own fi eld service organization to generate and nurture recruits. "We'll also look to logical sources such as the military and technical institutes," Delong says. "We'll quickly un- derstand where we are having the best results." (Inter- ested in becoming a member of these Ericsson crews? Contact Peter Kroshefskie, Ericsson senior recruiter, at peter.kroshefskie@ericsson.com.) Once the recruiting/training template has been de- veloped, Delong envisions a rolling four-week training boot camp of 15 to 25 people to put qualifi ed workers EquipmentWorld.com | November 2015 11 reporter | by Equipment World staff Ditch Witch, Vermeer pair with Ericsson to create new trenchless workforce (continued on following page) Training and equipment know-how are key components of the agreement Ericsson forged with Ditch Witch and Vermeer. I f you've ever wondered what goes into rebuilding and cleaning up after the Avengers have tackled a tough foe, you'll want to look out for a new sitcom under development by Marvel and ABC. According to Va- riety, the new Damage Control sitcom will focus on the construction and engineering company featured in the Marvel comic of the same name. The half-hour sitcom will focus on the "overworked, underpaid clean- up crew of the Marvel Universe," Variety reports. According to a report from The Verge, this comical construction crew debuted in 1988 and is tasked with rebuilding and cleaning up the property damage caused by superheroes and super villains. –Wayne Grayson Construction crew that rebuilds after Marvel superheroes battles focus of new sitcom

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