PSTN Contracts

Public Switched Telecom Network (PSTN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring PSTN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited PSTN over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 497 578 691
Rank change year-on-year +81 +113 +140
Contract jobs citing PSTN 22 22 22
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.075% 0.050% 0.037%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.59% 0.39% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 14 10
10th Percentile £220 £201 £205
25th Percentile £225 £371 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £305
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +47.54% -31.84%
75th Percentile £480 £630 £456
90th Percentile £545 £638 £509
UK excluding London median daily rate £220 £200 £210
% change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -37.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 7 3
10th Percentile - £13.25 -
25th Percentile - £13.63 £12.50
Median hourly rate - £25.77 £13.00
Median % change year-on-year - +98.19% -
75th Percentile - £26.15 £36.75
90th Percentile - - £50.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £25.77 £13.00
% change year-on-year - +98.19% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

PSTN 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 3,739 5,643 7,361
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.79% 12.94% 12.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,297 3,382 4,789
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 £463 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -2.63% - +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 423 478
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.57 £9.80
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.35 £10.63
Median hourly rate £32.50 £38.50 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.58% +102.63% -31.84%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.59 £45.88 £18.50
% change year-on-year -46.41% +148.00% -13.95%

PSTN
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for PSTN in the UK

PSTN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for PSTN in the UK

PSTN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PSTN over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for PSTN in the UK

PSTN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for PSTN in the UK

PSTN
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 PSTN within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 +62 21 £475 +5.56% 7
UK excluding London +55 12 £220 +10.00% 8
North of England +37 10 £220 +10.00% 5
London +34 10 £480 -20.92%
Yorkshire +20 6 £220 +10.00%
Work from Home +46 4 £478 +6.11% 2
North West - 4 - - 5
South East - 1 - - 1
Scotland - 1 - - 1

PSTN
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 4 (18.18%) Exchange Server 2010
1 4 (18.18%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (18.18%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 2 (9.09%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (9.09%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (4.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 4 (18.18%) AWS
1 4 (18.18%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 8 (36.36%) WAN
2 7 (31.82%) Firewall
2 7 (31.82%) LAN
2 7 (31.82%) VoIP
3 6 (27.27%) MPLS
3 6 (27.27%) VPN
4 5 (22.73%) ADSL
4 5 (22.73%) ISDN
5 4 (18.18%) 4G
5 4 (18.18%) Broadband
5 4 (18.18%) Skype
5 4 (18.18%) SMTP
6 2 (9.09%) Cisco ASA
6 2 (9.09%) Internet
6 2 (9.09%) IPsec
6 2 (9.09%) NGFW
6 2 (9.09%) Wireless
7 1 (4.55%) Intranet
7 1 (4.55%) PBX
7 1 (4.55%) RTP
General
1 4 (18.18%) Telecoms
2 2 (9.09%) Finance
2 2 (9.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 2 (9.09%) Public Sector
2 2 (9.09%) Social Skills
3 1 (4.55%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (4.55%) Banking
3 1 (4.55%) Electronics
3 1 (4.55%) Investment Banking
3 1 (4.55%) Legal
3 1 (4.55%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 4 (18.18%) Collaboration Engineer
1 4 (18.18%) Help Desk Technician
2 3 (13.64%) Architect
2 3 (13.64%) Exchange Engineer
3 2 (9.09%) Network Architect
3 2 (9.09%) Network Engineer
3 2 (9.09%) Network Manager
3 2 (9.09%) Telecoms Engineer
3 2 (9.09%) Telephony Engineer
3 2 (9.09%) Telephony Manager
4 1 (4.55%) Administrator
4 1 (4.55%) Analyst
4 1 (4.55%) Consultant
4 1 (4.55%) Monitoring Analyst
4 1 (4.55%) Network Analyst
4 1 (4.55%) Project Engineer
4 1 (4.55%) Security Consultant
4 1 (4.55%) Service Analyst
4 1 (4.55%) Service Desk Analyst
4 1 (4.55%) VoIP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.55%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 4 (18.18%) Blackberry
1 4 (18.18%) Handset
1 4 (18.18%) Operational Technology
2 3 (13.64%) CCTV
3 2 (9.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
3 2 (9.09%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (4.55%) Data Centre
4 1 (4.55%) Driving Licence
4 1 (4.55%) Fibre Optics
4 1 (4.55%) SCADA
4 1 (4.55%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 4 (18.18%) Android
1 4 (18.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (22.73%) Migration
1 5 (22.73%) Network Virtualisation
1 5 (22.73%) Performance Monitoring
2 4 (18.18%) Agile
2 4 (18.18%) Business Strategy
2 4 (18.18%) Network Design
2 4 (18.18%) Performance Tuning
2 4 (18.18%) Problem Management
2 4 (18.18%) Zero Trust
3 3 (13.64%) Incident Management
3 3 (13.64%) Network Architecture
3 3 (13.64%) Network Monitoring
4 2 (9.09%) Network Load Balancing
4 2 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (9.09%) Service Management
4 2 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 1 (4.55%) Change Management
5 1 (4.55%) ITSM
5 1 (4.55%) Process Management
5 1 (4.55%) Project Management
Qualifications
1 6 (27.27%) Security Cleared
2 5 (22.73%) SC Cleared
3 4 (18.18%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (9.09%) CCNA
4 2 (9.09%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (9.09%) Degree
5 1 (4.55%) Avaya Certification
5 1 (4.55%) DBS Check
5 1 (4.55%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (18.18%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (13.64%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (9.09%) Cisco CUCM
2 1 (4.55%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 5 (22.73%) Cisco
1 5 (22.73%) Microsoft
1 5 (22.73%) Salesforce
2 4 (18.18%) Clearswift
2 4 (18.18%) Ribbon
3 3 (13.64%) VMware
4 2 (9.09%) Aruba
4 2 (9.09%) CheckPoint
4 2 (9.09%) F5
4 2 (9.09%) Juniper
4 2 (9.09%) Palo Alto
5 1 (4.55%) Avaya
5 1 (4.55%) Nokia