Certified Telecommunications Network Specialist (CTNS)

The Certified Telecommunications Network Specialist (CTNS) certification offered by the Telecommunications Certification Organization (TCO) is aimed at project team members, managers, analysts, planners and developers who understand telecom networking fundamentals, including services and infrastructure requirements. A CTNS usually works for a telecommunications services provider, reseller or telecom equipment manufacturer.

Achieving the CTNS requires attending six courses and then passing the respective exams. Exam topics  cover traditional telephony, wireless communications, carrier networks and a host of more general networking topics such as the OSI reference model and protocols, Ethernet LANs, virtual networking, networking equipment and addressing.

All exams and courses are administered by Teracom Training Institute (TTI). Individual courses cost $49 USD, which includes a single exam attempt. The best value comes with the purchase of a certification package ($219 USD) that includes all six courses, along with unlimited passes through the courseware as well as exam repeats, and a pass guarantee.

 CTNS Facts & Figures

Certification Name

• Certified Telecommunications Network Specialist (CTNS)

Prerequisites/Required Courses

• Six required courses:
  – L2201 POTS and The PSTN
  – L2206 Wireless Telecommunications
  – L2212 The OSI Layers and Protocol Stacks
  – L2211 Ethernet, LANs and VLANs
  – L2213 IP Networks, Routers and Addresses
  – L2214 MPLS and Carrier Networks

Number of Exams

• Six exams (One exam per course; Most exams are ten questions, multiple choice, 70% passing score)

Cost per Exam

• $49 USD per course/exam; $219 for certification package (Includes all six courses with unlimited course and exam repeats)
• Courses and exams are administered by Teracom Training Institute (TTI):www.teracomtraining.com (course price list available here)

URL

• www.certify-tco.org/certifications.htm

Self-Study Materials

• There are not a lot of self-study materials available, but there are detailed course descriptions in the CTNS Certification Package PDF. Course outlines and objectives contained on respective exam pages. Previews, free lessons and interactive tutorials available from TTI.

Note: Teracom recently stopped offering their Standard Plan (L21xx series courses) and currently only offers credential seekers the Unlimited Plan (L22xx series courses). Teracom is currently in the process of updating their website to reflect this change, but as of the writing of this article, references to the Standard Plan and the L21xx series courses were still present on some pages.