EC Engineering | Courses, Scope, Jobs & Salary
EC (Electronics and Communication) Engineering – Also known as EC Engineering or EXTC in full form or as Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering.
This is one of the biggest and best engineering courses in today’s times for Indian Students die to the boom in the mobile technology sector owing to new technologies such as:
- 5G
- Cloud platform
- IoT
- NFv
- SDN
- CAT-Mi
- TDD/FDD
ETRX,EXTC and EC Engineering
EC engineering and EXTC are the same branch of engineering,however ETRX is electronics engineering and this is different as this deals with PCBs for TVs,radios,motherboards etc and does not explore the cellular and mobile technologies.
EC Engineering full form
What does EC Engineering mean?The full form of EC engineering as mentioned in the previous para is Electronics and Communication engineering.Also referred to as EXTC in some states.
Why didn’t i opt for it?(My Story)
When i applied for a seat in the DTE CAP rounds,i was getting a choice of EC (EXTC)Engineering,ELEC and ETRX (Electronics).This was in the early 2000s when mobile telecom was in its infancy and growth in that industry was sluggish due to lesser players.This was because of a limited allocation of spectrum by the government and high price of bids for the spectrum.
At that time only Computers and IT engineering were the most sought after courses.I was getting these seats but far away from home,so decided not to take those also.Only left was ETRX and ELEC.I decided for ELEC as it was a 100 year old field and the most stable one along with mechanical.
EC Engineering Courses
There are namely 3 types of courses available for students who want to make a career in this field:
- Certificate Courses in EC Engineering
- Degree (Bachelors) Courses in EC Engineering
- Diploma Courses in EC Engineering
Certificate courses – These types of courses are of short duration that ranges from 3 months to 1 year.These are meant for people who want practical knowledge of this field and this includes all types of hardware and mobile repairing courses also.
Let me tell you that in order to get a job at a corporate office this type of certification course will not help you.However you can find work as:
- Digital CAble TV technician
- Broadband cable wireman/technician
- Circuit board and mobile repair
- Appliances technician
FEES,Eligibility,admission for certificate course – Most of these certification courses are run by private institutions and even a 10th pass can apply for these courses.the reason why im saying 10th pass ios because a basic understanding of little science and english is required to grasp concepts.
the short term courses costs less and you can even do basic courses for
ADvantage of doing a certificate course – One of the main reasons to do a certificate course in EC or telecom engineering from a reputed institution is because they are tied up with companies in the industry and provide a placement directly after completing the course.You can expect to pay Rs.10,000 onwards for basic bundled courses.
Diploma Courses – Diploma courses are 3 years long and give you a good foundation in both theoretical as well as a practical understanding of EC Engineering.The best part about the diploma course is that you can do it directly after class 10.
Many students after finishing the Diploma course take lateral entry into direct year of Degree engineering.This is because the degree has greater value as compared to diploma
Job opportunities after doing an EC engineering Diploma
- Telecom Maintenance engineer
- Telecom Network and optimization engineer
- NOC engineer
- Drive Test engineer
- RF engineer
- Customer support engineer
Eligibility,Admission – Most diploma courses admission is based on class 10 board marks.It is merit based but there are also many smaller diploma colleges also admit students privately through their own quotas.GEtting admission is much easier as compared to a degree college that is state based admission process.
Degree courses – This is best option to do EC engineering as it is a very thorough and in depth detailed study of Electronics and Telecom engineering.Even when applying for a job and you have a 4 years bachelors degree,that has a lot of value and you will be easily absorbed into any big Telecom company.
About the course,fees,eligibility,admission – In any degree course,you need to either go through the centralized admission process of each state or give an entrance exam if any.It is purely on merit basis and aso a certain percentage about 50% of class 12 th marks maybe be required for eligibility.
Course- It is a four years full time course that is divided into 8 semesters,2 semesters per academic year.These will include theory,practicals,viva as well as internal tests etc./it is a highly demanding and challenging course compared to diploma as also you will be studying mathematics for 5 semesters.
Fees- These courses are the most expensive from all as they are 4 years long and also the level of education and learning is also the highest you can expect to pay atleast Rs.50,000-95,000 per academic year
EC Engineering degree syllabus
For Ec engineering DEgree course,the first and second semester is common for all branches of engineering.However,there is one subject that you need to pay lots of attention to in First year.It is BEE (Basic Electricity and Electronics).This will teach you fundamentals and will form the basis for the next three years of your course.
Some important subjects from the other 6 semesters are:
Semester 3
EDC – Electronics DEvices and Circuits
Digital System Design
Circuit Theory and Networks
See Full semester 3 syllabus here
Semester 4
Linear Integrated Circuits
Principles of Communication Engineering
Signals and Systems
See Full semester 4 syllabus here
Semester 5
Analog Communication
Random Signal Analysis
Communication Engineering
Integrated Circuits
See Full semester 5 syllabus here
Semester 6
Computer Communication and Telecom Networks
VLSI Design
Television engineering
See Full semester 6 syllabus here
Semester 7
Image and Video Processing
Mobile Communication
Optical Communication Networks
Microwave and Radar Engineering
See Full semester 7 syllabus here
Semester 8
Wireless Networks
Satellite Communication Networks
Internet and Voice Communication
See Full semester 8 syllabus here
Job Scope and Salary for EC Engineers
AFter doing ECE engineering what sort of jobs can you expect?and how much can salary you expect to earn.
Firstly you should understand that there are four main areas of telecom jobs –
- Jobs in Towers
- Jobs in the Field / Site
- Jobs in corporate office
- Jobs in retail showroom
In all these jobs you can expect a freshers salary of atleast Rs.25000 per month.
What is the Scope of a EC engineer?
In the last 5 years with Volte technology and the advent of Jio telecom,broadband in India is fastest,cheapest and has the most number of users more than anywhere else in the world!
IF you decide to become an EC engineer,your chances of getting a good annual package are high and you can expect to get hired easily.With little experience your compensation could jump to 10 lacs p.a within 2-2.5 years in the industry.