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 22 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 524 551 639
Rank change year-on-year +27 +88 +213
Contract jobs citing PSTN 22 25 45
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.067% 0.061% 0.081%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.55% 0.49% 0.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 11 26
10th Percentile £216 £319 £205
25th Percentile £350 £372 £366
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +5.88% -4.49%
75th Percentile £480 £546 £548
90th Percentile £507 £607 £613
UK excluding London median daily rate £258 £381 £400
% change year-on-year -32.46% -4.69% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 6 3
10th Percentile - £13.63 -
25th Percentile £61.75 £16.85 £12.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 £25.77 £13.00
Median % change year-on-year +146.46% +98.19% -
75th Percentile £65.25 £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 4,016 5,141 7,030
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.29% 12.44% 12.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,422 3,069 4,570
10th Percentile £235 £213 £231
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% - -
75th Percentile £589 £600 £625
90th Percentile £675 £688 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £458
% change year-on-year -5.00% +9.17% +1.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 383 303
10th Percentile £14.93 £13.90 £10.63
25th Percentile £20.93 £17.66 £17.15
Median hourly rate £45.00 £40.00 £48.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -16.67% +65.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £83.20 £73.65 £77.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.48 £47.50 £57.17
% change year-on-year -12.68% -16.91% +138.19%

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 22 July 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 11 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 22 July 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 +32 18 £475 +5.56% 7
London +35 10 £478 +6.11% 1
Work from Home +28 8 £478 -9.65% 1
UK excluding London +9 8 £258 -32.46% 5
North of England +6 5 - - 2
North West - 4 - - 1
Midlands -5 2 £258 +60.94%
West Midlands +3 1 £350 -
East Midlands -3 1 £165 +3.13%
Yorkshire -5 1 - - 1
Scotland - 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 9 (40.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (18.18%) Exchange Server 2010
2 4 (18.18%) Skype for Business
Cloud Services
1 5 (22.73%) Azure
1 5 (22.73%) Microsoft 365
2 4 (18.18%) AWS
3 1 (4.55%) Entra ID
3 1 (4.55%) IaaS
3 1 (4.55%) Microsoft Purview
3 1 (4.55%) Nutanix
3 1 (4.55%) OneDrive
3 1 (4.55%) Power Automate
3 1 (4.55%) Power Platform
3 1 (4.55%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (40.91%) VoIP
2 8 (36.36%) LAN
2 8 (36.36%) WAN
3 7 (31.82%) Firewall
4 6 (27.27%) MPLS
4 6 (27.27%) VPN
5 4 (18.18%) 4G
5 4 (18.18%) ISDN
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%) DKIM
7 1 (4.55%) Structured Cabling
7 1 (4.55%) Unified Communications
7 1 (4.55%) VLAN
7 1 (4.55%) WebEx
General
1 6 (27.27%) Public Sector
1 6 (27.27%) Social Skills
2 5 (22.73%) Electronics
2 5 (22.73%) Finance
2 5 (22.73%) Telecoms
3 4 (18.18%) Manufacturing
3 4 (18.18%) Marketing
4 2 (9.09%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (9.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (4.55%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (4.55%) Legal
5 1 (4.55%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 4 (18.18%) Collaboration Engineer
1 4 (18.18%) Exchange Specialist
1 4 (18.18%) Microsoft 365 Specialist
1 4 (18.18%) Telephony Engineer
1 4 (18.18%) Voice Specialist
1 4 (18.18%) VoIP Specialist
2 3 (13.64%) Exchange Engineer
3 2 (9.09%) Architect
3 2 (9.09%) Consultant
3 2 (9.09%) Network Architect
3 2 (9.09%) Network Engineer
3 2 (9.09%) Network Manager
3 2 (9.09%) Telephony Manager
4 1 (4.55%) Field Engineer
4 1 (4.55%) IT Engineer
4 1 (4.55%) Openreach Engineer
4 1 (4.55%) Project Engineer
4 1 (4.55%) Security Consultant
4 1 (4.55%) Telecoms Engineer
4 1 (4.55%) VoIP Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 4 (18.18%) Blackberry
1 4 (18.18%) Handset
1 4 (18.18%) Operational Technology
2 2 (9.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
2 2 (9.09%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (4.55%) Data Centre
3 1 (4.55%) Driving Licence
3 1 (4.55%) Fibre Optics
3 1 (4.55%) SCADA
3 1 (4.55%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 4 (18.18%) Android
1 4 (18.18%) Windows Server 2019
2 1 (4.55%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (36.36%) Agile
2 5 (22.73%) Network Virtualisation
2 5 (22.73%) Performance Monitoring
2 5 (22.73%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (22.73%) Task Automation
3 4 (18.18%) Business Intelligence
3 4 (18.18%) Business Strategy
3 4 (18.18%) Cloud Operations
3 4 (18.18%) Data Loss Prevention
3 4 (18.18%) Digital Marketing
3 4 (18.18%) Disaster Recovery
3 4 (18.18%) E-Discovery
3 4 (18.18%) Migration
3 4 (18.18%) Network Design
3 4 (18.18%) Performance Tuning
3 4 (18.18%) Problem Management
3 4 (18.18%) Programme Management
3 4 (18.18%) Zero Trust
4 3 (13.64%) Network Architecture
5 2 (9.09%) Network Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 5 (22.73%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 11 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 10 (45.45%) SC Cleared
3 2 (9.09%) CCNA
3 2 (9.09%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (4.55%) DBS Check
4 1 (4.55%) Degree
4 1 (4.55%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (18.18%) SLA
System Software
1 4 (18.18%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (4.55%) Active Directory
2 1 (4.55%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 1 (4.55%) Cisco CUCM
1 1 (4.55%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 10 (45.45%) Microsoft
2 5 (22.73%) Cisco
3 4 (18.18%) Clearswift
3 4 (18.18%) Ribbon
3 4 (18.18%) SAP
3 4 (18.18%) 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%) Nokia
5 1 (4.55%) Openreach
5 1 (4.55%) ServiceNow