3GPP Contracts

3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring 3GPP skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited 3GPP over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 505 565 695
Rank change year-on-year +60 +130 +125
Contract jobs citing 3GPP 15 17 23
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.051% 0.039% 0.039%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.40% 0.30% 0.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 1 8
10th Percentile £420 - £279
25th Percentile £506 £375 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £400 £500
Median % change year-on-year +31.25% -20.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £613 £425 £521
90th Percentile £638 - £543
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £400 £486
% change year-on-year +43.75% -17.70% +17.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £59.00 - £53.50
Median hourly rate £62.00 - £57.00
75th Percentile £65.00 - £60.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.00 - £57.00

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

3GPP falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 3,722 5,629 7,357
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.71% 12.92% 12.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,285 3,368 4,786
10th Percentile £213 £205 £235
25th Percentile £363 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £495 £519
Median % change year-on-year -1.52% -4.53% +3.70%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £638
90th Percentile £675 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £481 £475
% change year-on-year -3.38% +1.32% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 177 423 478
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.57 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.35 £10.63
Median hourly rate £29.00 £40.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.50% +110.53% -32.74%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.18 £45.88 £18.50
% change year-on-year -47.30% +148.00% -13.95%

3GPP
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing 3GPP as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for 3GPP in the UK

3GPP
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 3GPP.

Daily rate trend for 3GPP in the UK

3GPP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3GPP over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 3GPP in the UK

3GPP
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 3GPP.

Hourly rate trend for 3GPP in the UK

3GPP
Top 9 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 3GPP within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +60 15 £525 +31.25% 27
UK excluding London +64 13 £575 +43.75% 15
South East - 6 £400 - 6
East of England +34 5 £575 +43.75% 8
Work from Home +39 2 £575 - 12
North of England - 1 - - 1
East Midlands - 1 £650 -
Midlands - 1 £650 - 1
North West - 1 - - 1

3GPP
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (13.33%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 4 (26.67%) OpenShift
2 1 (6.67%) Cloud Computing
2 1 (6.67%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 9 (60.00%) 4G
2 7 (46.67%) 5G
2 7 (46.67%) LTE
3 5 (33.33%) 3G
3 5 (33.33%) Wireless
4 3 (20.00%) Radio Access Network
5 2 (13.33%) Diameter Protocol
5 2 (13.33%) HTTP
5 2 (13.33%) MVNO
6 1 (6.67%) MIMO
6 1 (6.67%) Network Security
Development Applications
1 2 (13.33%) Jenkins
2 1 (6.67%) Git
2 1 (6.67%) GitLab
General
1 10 (66.67%) Telecoms
2 3 (20.00%) Social Skills
3 2 (13.33%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (6.67%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 4 (26.67%) Architect
1 4 (26.67%) Technical Design Authority
2 3 (20.00%) Embedded Engineer
2 3 (20.00%) Embedded Software Engineer
2 3 (20.00%) Radio Engineer
2 3 (20.00%) Software Engineer
3 2 (13.33%) Developer
3 2 (13.33%) Software Developer
3 2 (13.33%) Solutions Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Technical Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Technical Design Architect
4 1 (6.67%) DevOps Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Network Architect
4 1 (6.67%) Performance Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Test Automation Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (13.33%) OpenAPI
1 2 (13.33%) REST
1 2 (13.33%) RESTful
1 2 (13.33%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 4 (26.67%) Onboarding
2 1 (6.67%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 3 (20.00%) Linux
2 1 (6.67%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (26.67%) Project Management
2 3 (20.00%) Multithreading
2 3 (20.00%) Network Architecture
2 3 (20.00%) Roadmaps
2 3 (20.00%) Software Architecture
3 2 (13.33%) API Development
3 2 (13.33%) Conflict Resolution
3 2 (13.33%) Containerisation
3 2 (13.33%) Decision-Making
3 2 (13.33%) Microservices
3 2 (13.33%) Project Delivery
3 2 (13.33%) Technology Roadmap
4 1 (6.67%) Case Management
4 1 (6.67%) DevOps
4 1 (6.67%) Machine Learning
4 1 (6.67%) Open Source
4 1 (6.67%) Performance Engineering
4 1 (6.67%) Performance Optimisation
4 1 (6.67%) Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (6.67%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 6 (40.00%) C++
2 3 (20.00%) C
2 3 (20.00%) Python
3 2 (13.33%) Go
3 2 (13.33%) Java
4 1 (6.67%) C#
4 1 (6.67%) Perl
Qualifications
1 1 (6.67%) SC Cleared
1 1 (6.67%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 2 (13.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (46.67%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 4 (26.67%) VMware
2 1 (6.67%) Amdocs
2 1 (6.67%) Cisco
2 1 (6.67%) Dell
2 1 (6.67%) Google
2 1 (6.67%) Huawei
2 1 (6.67%) Mavenir
2 1 (6.67%) Rakuten
2 1 (6.67%) Samsung