Has anyone stopped to think about some of the expenses that the world's broadband providers have? Overpriced Cisco routers and switches (running Cisco IOS), overpriced NT and Solaris servers, overpriced HP NetVue management software, etc. Notice a common thread? Closed source.
No. The common thread is hardware. You mentioned routers, switches, servers (running NT and Solaris), etc.
Juniper routers use an OpenBSD based OS (JUNOS) as the kernel of their software (as well as an Intel-based PCI platform routing engine as hardware). This reduced development cost and time of their products, but the list price is as high or higher for similar Cisco products.
Why?
Network equipment vendors manufacture hardware and are therefore subject to economies of scale. If Cisco ships 10 times as many 12000s as Juniper ships M40s, guess which one will be cheaper to manufacture?
Another factor driving up hardware costs is the limited customer base for this sort of equipment. What is the market demand for 10Gbps routers?
Of course if you want to run open source software on specialized hardware, that is possible too. For instance, you can run Linux on a Cisco 2500, if you are an open source purist. It would be unlikely that this will significantly reduce the cost of owning and deploying a network, however.
Comunication providers (including ISPs) do not manufacture a product, and thus do not benefit from "economies of scale" in the same way that a manufacturing enterprise would. Why? They are primarily service providers. Take the following two examples:
Example 1 - Traditional widget manufacturer: develops a product in R&D labs. Incurs high development costs, prototype units are each hand-built by engineers. Manufacturing process is developed (at additional expense), assembly-lines are set-up, workers hired and trained. Now the first widgets come off the assembly line and quality-control finds problems in 50% of the widgets. Reasearch determines that a crucial step was missed when developing the process, which then must be revised.
Example 2 - Plumber, a service provider: Fred, a plumber decides to open his own plumbing business. He is a trained professional with 10 years of experince. One day, he may work on a bathroom remodling job, the next he may be working on new construction. He initally invests in a computer to help with his bookeeping, a set of tools, and a truck. After a while, he has more work than he can do himself so he hires a helper. This enables him to work faster, but he would like to take on even more work, so he hires a few more teams of plumbers and helpers, but then needs to expand his administrative staff to cope with the new employees. He hires supervisors and foremen to direct the work.
Now, in the context of the first example, the unit cost of the first 100 units is quite high while the unit cost of the millionith unit is quite small since the development costs can be spread over many more units. This is the basis for the "economy of scale."
The impact of "economies of scale" is much less pronounced in the second example. Yes, the unit cost (to Fred, not the customer) of the first job is much higher than the 100th, because Fred has to recover the costs of the tools, the truck, and the computer. On the other hand, Fred is not able to serve customers more quickly (and thus reduce his cost) just by increasing the number of jobs completed. The increased overhead of the additonal administrative expenses will curb an increase in profits. Fred may, in fact, be better off as an independent contractor and limiting the number of jobs that he can do.
I am a network engineer, not a plumber nor a widget maker, so I'm sure that these examples are over-simplified. But I am equally certain that the telecominications is much more like the service provider and less like a widget maker. Yes, there are economies of scale early on: it will take much longer to recover the cost of a 100 port DSLAM with only 10 customers, but much less with 90. But guess what? The 101st customer will require that an additional DSLAM be purcased, space found in the Central Office (notoriously cramped places), cables run from the MDF (main distribution frame), etc. At the 201st customer, the same exercise must be repeated. At the 1001st customer, an extension to the Central Office must be built, power and HVAC installed, new distribution frames installed, and so on.
I have not even mentioned customer care, network engineering and operations, billing, and all of the other factors assoicated with rolling out a communications service.
Economies of scale just don't apply in the "big" telco world.
AT&T does not own the last mile, that would be the ILEC or CLEC. AT&T is an IXC (otherwise known as a long-distance company) as well as being a provider of television and cable-modem services. AT&T Wireless also offers voice services, but they are not really a "last-mile" operator since they are radio based.
Yes, it lessens the "opportunities" for contractors in exactly the same way that it lessens the "opportunities" for the employer. If you are a contractor who takes pride in your work, does a good job, in short, if you act like a good employee, then you and the company should be willing to make a commitment to each other. This commitment necessarily limits the opportunities for both parties, but in return you get additional benefits, as well as a certain degree of job security.
There is an IMO disturbing trend for tech workers in our industry to trade job security for high wages and a temporary assignment as a contractor and then to complain when someone points out to them that they are, afterall, just a temp!
As another expat in Amsterdam, I can relate to some of your experinces. But, in Holland, everything is complicated. (including getting a bank account, telephone, apartment; but I digress) As an IT professional, you should not have too much of a problem, provided that you can document significant job experience and a college degree.
Before you even think about moving here check out http://www.expatica.com for information regarding life in the Netherlands (and soon other european countries).
You will also want to apply for a special tax break that is offered to professionals in certain fields, including networking and IT professionals. This used to be termed the "35% ruling" because in entitled the holder to a 35% tax exemption for the first 10 years in the Netherlands. The bad news is that this exemption has been reduced to 30% effective next year. The good news is that the top tax bracket has been reduced to 50%, so if you are in the top bracket (and you don't have to make too much to put you there) you will still net more than you would have under the old system. The net effect is that taxes are on par with what you are used to paying in the US.
By far the easiest way to eliminate the immigration hassle is to find some way to transfer within an international company that has a Dutch office. If you can pull this off, your case should proceed quickly.
In any case, YOU should not have to worry too much about the complexities involved. Any company that you would want to work for will have an international HR contact that will apply for your work permit (tewerkstellingvergunning) and help with relocation. As for the residence permit (verblijfsvergunning), I found the process simple, but irratating. You will need all of your documents in order (be sure to get an 'apositile' from your state department of records for legal records like birth and marriage certificates) before you make your initial appointment. You probably won't have some document (or, rather, as one official put it, "you don't have the right seal on your birth certificate"), so you will have to make another appointment, get the right documents in order, and try again.
Somethings are actually easier than you think. For instance, buying a house and getting a mortgage are easier than in the US.
For whatever its worth, I moved 18 months ago, and if I knew then what I knew now, I would not hesitate to make the same decision. I still don't know the language very well, but I find Amsterdam in particular to be very international. You will probably be working with people from all over the world.
As for the pay issues, it varies widely. If you work for a Dutch company, it would be wise to expect a lower salary, but additional vacation days and maybe a car lease. On the other hand, international companies which have offices here tend to pay their employees about the same as their US based counterparts. Good Luck!
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No. The common thread is hardware. You mentioned routers, switches, servers (running NT and Solaris), etc.
Juniper routers use an OpenBSD based OS (JUNOS) as the kernel of their software (as well as an Intel-based PCI platform routing engine as hardware). This reduced development cost and time of their products, but the list price is as high or higher for similar Cisco products.
Why?
Network equipment vendors manufacture hardware and are therefore subject to economies of scale. If Cisco ships 10 times as many 12000s as Juniper ships M40s, guess which one will be cheaper to manufacture?
Another factor driving up hardware costs is the limited customer base for this sort of equipment. What is the market demand for 10Gbps routers?
Of course if you want to run open source software on specialized hardware, that is possible too. For instance, you can run Linux on a Cisco 2500, if you are an open source purist. It would be unlikely that this will significantly reduce the cost of owning and deploying a network, however.
Example 1 - Traditional widget manufacturer: develops a product in R&D labs. Incurs high development costs, prototype units are each hand-built by engineers. Manufacturing process is developed (at additional expense), assembly-lines are set-up, workers hired and trained. Now the first widgets come off the assembly line and quality-control finds problems in 50% of the widgets. Reasearch determines that a crucial step was missed when developing the process, which then must be revised.
Example 2 - Plumber, a service provider: Fred, a plumber decides to open his own plumbing business. He is a trained professional with 10 years of experince. One day, he may work on a bathroom remodling job, the next he may be working on new construction. He initally invests in a computer to help with his bookeeping, a set of tools, and a truck. After a while, he has more work than he can do himself so he hires a helper. This enables him to work faster, but he would like to take on even more work, so he hires a few more teams of plumbers and helpers, but then needs to expand his administrative staff to cope with the new employees. He hires supervisors and foremen to direct the work.
Now, in the context of the first example, the unit cost of the first 100 units is quite high while the unit cost of the millionith unit is quite small since the development costs can be spread over many more units. This is the basis for the "economy of scale."
The impact of "economies of scale" is much less pronounced in the second example. Yes, the unit cost (to Fred, not the customer) of the first job is much higher than the 100th, because Fred has to recover the costs of the tools, the truck, and the computer. On the other hand, Fred is not able to serve customers more quickly (and thus reduce his cost) just by increasing the number of jobs completed. The increased overhead of the additonal administrative expenses will curb an increase in profits. Fred may, in fact, be better off as an independent contractor and limiting the number of jobs that he can do.
I am a network engineer, not a plumber nor a widget maker, so I'm sure that these examples are over-simplified. But I am equally certain that the telecominications is much more like the service provider and less like a widget maker. Yes, there are economies of scale early on: it will take much longer to recover the cost of a 100 port DSLAM with only 10 customers, but much less with 90. But guess what? The 101st customer will require that an additional DSLAM be purcased, space found in the Central Office (notoriously cramped places), cables run from the MDF (main distribution frame), etc. At the 201st customer, the same exercise must be repeated. At the 1001st customer, an extension to the Central Office must be built, power and HVAC installed, new distribution frames installed, and so on.
I have not even mentioned customer care, network engineering and operations, billing, and all of the other factors assoicated with rolling out a communications service.
Economies of scale just don't apply in the "big" telco world.
AT&T does not own the last mile, that would be the ILEC or CLEC. AT&T is an IXC (otherwise known as a long-distance company) as well as being a provider of television and cable-modem services. AT&T Wireless also offers voice services, but they are not really a "last-mile" operator since they are radio based.
There is an IMO disturbing trend for tech workers in our industry to trade job security for high wages and a temporary assignment as a contractor and then to complain when someone points out to them that they are, afterall, just a temp!
Before you even think about moving here check out http://www.expatica.com for information regarding life in the Netherlands (and soon other european countries).
You will also want to apply for a special tax break that is offered to professionals in certain fields, including networking and IT professionals. This used to be termed the "35% ruling" because in entitled the holder to a 35% tax exemption for the first 10 years in the Netherlands. The bad news is that this exemption has been reduced to 30% effective next year. The good news is that the top tax bracket has been reduced to 50%, so if you are in the top bracket (and you don't have to make too much to put you there) you will still net more than you would have under the old system. The net effect is that taxes are on par with what you are used to paying in the US.
By far the easiest way to eliminate the immigration hassle is to find some way to transfer within an international company that has a Dutch office. If you can pull this off, your case should proceed quickly.
In any case, YOU should not have to worry too much about the complexities involved. Any company that you would want to work for will have an international HR contact that will apply for your work permit (tewerkstellingvergunning) and help with relocation. As for the residence permit (verblijfsvergunning), I found the process simple, but irratating. You will need all of your documents in order (be sure to get an 'apositile' from your state department of records for legal records like birth and marriage certificates) before you make your initial appointment. You probably won't have some document (or, rather, as one official put it, "you don't have the right seal on your birth certificate"), so you will have to make another appointment, get the right documents in order, and try again.
Somethings are actually easier than you think. For instance, buying a house and getting a mortgage are easier than in the US.
For whatever its worth, I moved 18 months ago, and if I knew then what I knew now, I would not hesitate to make the same decision. I still don't know the language very well, but I find Amsterdam in particular to be very international. You will probably be working with people from all over the world.
As for the pay issues, it varies widely. If you work for a Dutch company, it would be wise to expect a lower salary, but additional vacation days and maybe a car lease. On the other hand, international companies which have offices here tend to pay their employees about the same as their US based counterparts. Good Luck!