Why Your Business May Need an Updated Data Cabling Installation

When it comes to businesses, both small and large, the structure of the data cabling is core to the speeds your telephony and broadband services provide.

In the older days, cat 3 cables were pretty much standard. They were at one point the fastest Ethernet cables you’d find.

Today though, things are much different.

Cat 3 is pretty much non-existent in new installations. There’s far superior technology available and those perform best with a cat 5, 5e, or even better is the cat 6 cabling installation. 

The higher the number, the more efficient your voice and data delivery becomes. That’s the gist of it.

There are subtle differences to each different type of cable and that’s why specialist structured data cabling installers are an invaluable asset to businesses.

The lines of communication are the life and blood of every businesses success. That goes for educational buildings, hospitals, a doctors’ surgery and even residential properties too.

It’s unlikely that a residential property will require the data cabling to be overhauled though. The speeds, even being delivered through Cat 3 cabling can be sufficient for a couple of home phones, surfing the web, interactive gaming etc.

In a business though, the needs are much more demanding. You’ll have computer systems at work alongside telephony systems. Quite often, the telephony side of things can be a complex system in itself. Add to that the VoIP systems and you then need your cabling to deliver both voice and data.

That’s when slow delivery speeds can really put a strain on your system, if you’re still on the older generation cabling.

Bring the cabling up to the modern day delivery speeds

You’ve probably seen the jargon from telephony service providers about how fast and overall an improved service they can offer to your business. The truth of the matter is that they can only do that when the right data cabling structure is in place.

Take the Cat 3 cables, if your premises are running those. They’re only capable of delivering 10 mbps, at a frequency up to 16 MHz. That’s still used today for telephone systems, but mostly in residential premises.

In commercial premises, the updated cabling will be delivered through Cat 5, or Cat 5e (enhanced) cables. Note that both deliver the same bandwidth, which is 100 Mhz, quite an improvement on the 16 MHz from the older cabling system.

Progress on from there and you then have the Cat 6 cabling infrastructure. That’s something that you may not need, if you’re only running a small business. Larger organising will use this type of cabling, as it is an improvement from Cat 5 and 5e. With this, the frequency increases from the 100 MHz up to 250 MHz.

That’s what brings you the fast voice and data delivery from your telephony provider.

It’s also the reason why that you when you sign up to any of the services, they’re advertised as “up to” speeds. The only way to ensure you’re receiving the fastest service is to have the best voice and data cabling infrastructure for optimum performance.

The problems that can occur with your cabling:

Interference is the main issue and that’s through the cables used in the installation. There’s several types of cabling and they be chosen specifically in line with the premises they’re going to be installed on.

That’s why you need to have site survey carried out prior to any new installation. Without knowing the existing cabling structure, for all the wiring, the wrong cable choice could deem it useless upon completion.

The thing with data cabling is that because they’re generating frequencies, they’re prone to interference. The last thing you want during a conference call is that annoying sound you hear when someone’s mobile phone is about to go, the static noise that will lose your focus.

While interference is common through voice and data communication, there are ways to minimize the crosstalk and other interference.

That’s through the type of cabling used on the install.

The solid core cable and the stranded cable difference

Solid core is the cheapest type of cable but it’s not always the best or at all suitable. A major problem with the solid core cable is that they’re prone to cracking when bent. That makes them unreliable for permanent installations within walls.

The stranded cable is the better option as that can be bent to a radius of around four times the cable thickness. That’s an ideal solution for getting the cable around corners, and further safeguarding the installation as the slightest of movements and vibrations can cause cracking in the cables.

It’s also important and best practice in structured data cabling jobs to minimize the cabling run to the shortest possible. The maximum distance for each Cat 5 and 5e cable is 100 meters.

During the install, depending on the cabling used, there will be different crimp connectors required. Since the stranded cable is more expensive, that’ s often used for the shorter runs and where it’s suitable to use the solid core cable, that will be done over the longer runs, only provided that the environment is suitable for a permanent installation though.

Use the wrong connector between the two cables and you will have unreliable cabling, leading to a poor performing communication system.