Network Cabling, Fiber & Phone System FAQs

Often more than one. New jacks for desks, phones, printers or Wi-Fi access points are network cabling. Building or sorting out the closet, racks and patch panels those jacks connect to is structured cabling. Linking closets on different floors or separate buildings, or a run too long for copper, calls for fiber. Cable that needs protecting goes in innerduct or EMT conduit, and a whole server room is a data center build-out.

Under ANSI/TIA-568, a copper channel can be 100 meters: up to 90 meters of installed cable plus up to 10 meters of patch cords. Past that, the usual answers are a second closet nearer the far end or a fiber link.

Communications cabling, as opposed to electrical power wiring: data and voice, Wi-Fi access points, CCTV and CATV, and sound masking. We install all of these.

Usually, yes. IP phones, including cloud-based systems, plug into a standard data drop, and most desk models have a second port so a computer can share the same jack. Older digital and analog systems need their own voice wiring. See business phone systems.

Yes. Wireless access points and the cabling that feeds them are part of our network cabling work, so plan a data drop for each access point.

Yes, as long as the system is still in use, and when it is time to replace it we can install the new one. See business phone systems for the systems we support.

We plan our work around the other trades and adjust when the schedule moves. A Medford, MA client's review on our EMT conduit page describes exactly that, and our About page covers how a project runs.

Call the office at 978-579-0006 and explain the timing. We work from Hopkinton, MA across the towns we service. Client reviews on our EMT conduit and business phone systems pages describe how we have fit urgent work in.