Uses of Erlang in Telecom [closed]

Question

I'm a web developer and a college student majoring in telecommunications. This means I'm decent at programming and I know a little about telecom networks (at a high, non-technical level).

I keep reading that Erlang is used all over the telecom industry (supposedly for its performance).

I'm wondering if there's anyway I can combine my programming skills with my telecommunications major with Erlang. Is most of the Erlang/telecom stuff closed source? Are there any open source telecom projects written Erlang?

UPDATE: sipwiz's comment makes me think in terms of a question larger than "uses of Erlang". How can I leverage a high-level understanding of telecom networks and the telecom regulatory environment with programming. I hope this hasn't veered too off-topic for SO.

Answer 1

I've been doing telecommunications software for more than 20 years. I regret that I've only gotten involved in using Erlang in the last 12 months. Most telecom development is done in C, C++, etc.

IMHO, this is because we didn't know better. If you want to maximize your job opportunities, Erlang isn't your best choice. I regret that this is true. Would I tell my son to learn Erlang and go where the work is? Yes, I would.

Carl Wright Service Level Corporation

Answer 2

There is big difference between high level web development, and implementing a network application using a hex editor and an incomprehensible protocol specification, regardless of the language.

If you want to program telecom applications, you have to be prepared for learning a lot more than a new language.