Slashdot Mirror
AU Regulations on LAN Cabling?
An anonymous reader asks: "After getting a ridiculous quote for the cost of rewiring an office, I started investigating the possibility of doing all the phone/data cabling myself. About 40 RJ-45 ports all coming back to a central patch panel that would be patched into the phone or data switch as needed. My research found that doing this simple job would be illegal in Australia, according to the Australian Communications Authority's (ACA) website. According to them, they have the right to walk in at any time and demand an audit of your LAN, and if it was not installed by a registered cabler, you can be fined up to $13,000. My question is, how does this compare to legislation in other parts of the world? Also, has anyone in Australia ever been subject to one of these 'cabling audits'? Was it painful?"
In Britain, until 1984, British Telecommunications Plc (better known as "BT") was part of the Post Office, and essentially had a monopoly over all telecommunications. The company was privatized, and the laws that had previously governed telecommunications were very slowly liberalized.
Now, to give you some idea of the scale of what we're talking about, the state of the law in 1983 meant that you couldn't actually wire up a large building with a private phone system. You had to get the Post Office to do it for you. The Post Office argued that it had the right to insist on this, as anything else was a blatent attempt to circumvent its monopoly. Worse, if the system was to be connected to the PSTN (via a PBX or something), then miswiring could cause the entire telephone network to be destroyed.
(But lightning strikes wouldn't cause the same damage. Go figure.)
When the law was liberalized, it remained the case the government had an absolute monopoly on all telecommunications. What they did then was grant two types of license, special telecommunications licenses for entities like BT and Mercury (the half-arsed attempt by Cable and Wireless to build a competitor), and "class licenses" that applied to anyone trying to do a certain type of thing. For example, a class license exists (and does so today, I'm not making this up) that allows you to run telephone wires in your own home.
For a long time, until the EU told them they couldn't do it, you had to get government approval for every piece of equipment you wanted to hook up to the PSTN. Checking for approval meant looking for a device with a green BABT stcker on it. If it didn't have the sticker, you weren't allowed to hook it up. Nobody took it particularly seriously, even BT, the company supposedly most at risk from faulty equipment, ignored violations.
I don't know if Australia's phone service was initially a state monopoly, but if it was, I'd be very surprised if the reason for this type of law isn't similar to the nonsense above. A monopoly is picked apart and an industry deregulated, and little things like the above are left behind, startling anyone who comes across them.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I looked into the requirements to become a licensed electrician for my brother who was looking at changing careers... They include some classroom requirements and that you pass a test, but more importantly, you need to be an apprentice with a union shop for many years (as they are the only ones that have a "qualified program".) This does two things: it keeps the number of electricians down as only a few people are accepted for these programs, and guarantees cheap labor for at least 5 years. Are the apprentices getting valuable on the job training? Nope - they are the ones doing all the major grunt work of digging ditches, drilling holes, bending conduit, pulling cable, etc. while the senior guys do all the connection work, etc. It's a racket. You could have a degree in electrical engineering, pass any test with a perfect score, be more competernt in practice than any current master electrician out there but you can't get licensed without going through the apprentice program. I've known a couple good people who started down that path and got totally fed up with ONLY doing the crap work. Damn unions. There was a time and a place for them. No longer.
OK FWIW my 35 cents. As a cableguy for 19 some years, I can tell you it's not that hard, anyone builing a house should slip in on the weeknd before they drywall and diy. Cost of materials less than 300 - 500 bucks US. Electricians typically here in the US run outlets and are charging 80-150 a outlet. Or a builder is including only 2 basic cable tv lines in the plan, which is so bogous. In some areas your local cable operator may be kind enough to come prewire it, I advocate strongly! Run home runs from each room with 3 items some rg-6 quad shield coax (direct tv TIVO will need 2 rg-6 into it), cat 5e line for phone, and a cat 5 or better netork, put all 3 in the same hole home ran to the basement panel where the utilities will come in, even tho wireless technology is come it's still nice to have a hard wired house, a drop in say a main halway for the printer fax copier. with a drop in every room and sometimes 2 in big rooms like living rooms or master bedrooms on oppsoite walls come in handy at christmas time. Put the cable modem or dsl or voip devices in the basement at point of entry then yu have maxiumum speed from the outside source. 1000' of cat 5 runs about 95 bucks, so do the math as a net admin for a drug rehab place we are spending 150 a run for a professional outfit to run them... not including extras like fishing a wall or floor. Theres a white paper I wrote on my site feel free to read.
Yea, though I walk thru the valley of no reception I fear not, for I carry a bigger antenna!
The cable pullers I hired always knew what EVERYONE in town was doing. They knew who was installing new computers, who had new facilities, and what was going on in new labs all over town. So hire a pro cable puller, offer them some coffee, and get strategic intelligence on all your competitors. Just make sure you don't reveal to them what YOU'RE doing.