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AU Regulations on LAN Cabling? 146

Posted by Cliff from the licensed-cable-technicians!? dept.
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?"
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AU Regulations on LAN Cabling? More

AU Regulations on LAN Cabling?

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  • Sounds like Pro-Union Legislation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MikeDawg ( 721537 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @01:53PM (#12067314) Homepage Journal
    What it sounds like to me is that Australia has some pro-union legislation in place. I'm not familiar with Australia, or the job force down there; but after reading this article it sounds like there are some unions down there that got some legislation passed in their favor.

    • Re:Sounds like Pro-Union Legislation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @01:55PM (#12067332) Homepage Journal
      exactly.

      though, is it just for permanent installations? make yours 'non-permanent'... in other words, just leave the cables on the floor in one big mess.

      and see how easy it would be to register yourself as a cabler..
    • This is a perfect example of why groups of people should not be allowed to exert political influence, and how unions can turn bad (since, in their basic form (group bargaining for employment benefits), a union is a great thing).

      • Re:Sounds like Pro-Union Legislation (Score:4, Insightful)

        by 4of12 ( 97621 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:57PM (#12068056) Homepage Journal

        This is a perfect example of why groups of people should not be allowed to exert political influence, and how unions can turn bad (since, in their basic form (group bargaining for employment benefits), a union is a great thing).

        I'd be more broad minded in my criticism.

        Yes, unions can act badly, creating this obvious market inefficiency due to their aggregated power in the labor-selling marketplace.

        But, just as concentrated power in the labor market can be bad, there are at least as many if not more examples of where market dominance by corporations cause inherent inefficiencies in the free market system.

        The most efficient system is where there aer large numbers of buyers and sellers of labor (or anything else). As the number of either decreases, then one or the other side are in a position to take advantage of the market for their own gain, be they unions or employers.

        In my world, the intersecting set of employees and stockholders would be much larger than it is today.

      • 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 apprenti

        • You haven't a clue what you are talking about. I DO have an Electrical Engineering Degree, but I would still defer to the time-served electrician any day of the week on most things. An Engineering Degree teaches you lots of theory, but very little practice in general.

          • You haven't a clue what you are talking about.

            Gee thanks. I think I do. Please post proof that I am wrong. Just because your EE program was all theory and nothing practical does not mean that ALL EE programs are that way. There is nothing an electrician does or knows that can't be taught in a 1 year vo-tech program.
      • Originally unions were meant to keep employers accountable to their employees. Modern unions are charged with keeping employees from being accountable to their employers.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • 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 destro
        • AT&T had a monopoly too, but they were (relatively) quick to wire up buildings and enable service, and prices were reasonable.

          That speed was really the only thing that kept Ma Bell from being split up long before it did. For decades, it was illegal to connect any non-AT&T equipment to the phone network because it could potentially "damage" the phone infrastructure. There are probably few here (and I'm not one of them) who remember that it was at one time nearly impossible to buy telephones, that
          • I remember those days; I was in college when the AT&T breakup was implemented. The phone bills in my area came with a punch card ("do not fold, spindle, or mutilate") which had to be returned with your bill. Telephones were not available in stores; you got them from the phone company, and you paid extra to have a second one in your home. Telco personnel did all the wiring, not just to the "network interface" (demarc) on the outside of the house... the interface was introduced during the breakup. Wha
            • For Christmas my wife got me a reconditioned old 1930s or 40s handset made by Bell Belgium of all places. It's great, has a *loud* bell (which scares the living bejesus out of the cat every time someone called us) and weighs half a ton.

              The other day I knocked it off the table. Not a scratch on the phone, but one of the prongs of the receiver cradle punched a hole in the TV remote!
      • Essentially Australia's phone system has gone through the exact same debacle. Initially Phone Services were all provided by the Federal Owned Monopoly, Telecomm Australia, which was renamed to Telstra before half was sold while the remaining half remains under the control of the Federal Government.

    • Many years ago at an organization I will not name research staff were not supposed to run network cable because the union rules required that members of a particular union run all cable, even the cable in cable trays in the corridors. If you followed the rules, it would take a couple months for them to get to it and they'd screw it up. In order to get anything done, the research staff would organize fast, precisely timed "guerilla cable laying parties" between union shifts. In this case, the union rules ju

  • RTFA (Score:5, Informative)

    by Merlin42 ( 148225 ) * on Monday March 28, 2005 @01:53PM (#12067316)
    Did you actually look at the website you linked to?
    On the front page it has a link to a pdf listing results from the 2004 inspections / audits. I think it was something like 600 inspections and 400 audits.

    The site has gone down now and I closed acrobat reader so I can't find the exact info.

  • Who paid them off? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DamienMcKenna ( 181101 ) <damien.mc-kenna@com> on Monday March 28, 2005 @01:55PM (#12067329)
    Sounds like an unfortunate joke. Anyone can string cables together, license or not.

    Or gain the licensing yourself and start doing some side work.

    Damien

    • Lemme put on my Union Hat. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by clintp ( 5169 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:11PM (#12067488)
      My father was a Unionized employee, and actually was part of the UAW hierarchy. He didn't believe it all, but since it was a requirement he had to push the propaganda. I can guess what it'd say:

      *screws on hat tightly, to cut off circulation to brain*

      "Union Cable Layers would have been trained as apprentices in this kind of work, and received whatever other training was necessary for local building codes, etc...

      Your average Joe would do a slipshod job and your cabling would be sub-standard and not work as well. In addition, an untrained cable-monkey might lay cables in places that were dangerous to the rest of the building structures (across high voltage, etc..) and possibly causing disaster and lawsuits. You wouldn't want that, would you?

      And if you even think of doing this yourself, expect to get a visit from the brotherhood of Electricians, Cable Layers and Egg Candlers Local 547."

      Ahem.
    • Indeed.

      FTFA:

      Why do I need a registered or licensed cabler?

      A registered or licensed cabler must follow the rules set out by the Australian Communications Authority (ACA). The rules make sure the cabling is done safely and that the cabler has the skills to do the job.

      Cabling that is installed incorrectly can result in your phones, faxes, Internet or alarm systems not working properly. Faulty cabling can also increase the risk of safety hazards such as electrocution.

      Phones not working properly... Oh, the

  • Pay off your lawmakers (Score:5, Informative)

    by linuxwrangler ( 582055 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:04PM (#12067418)
    Seriously, this sort of regulation is generally passed in the name of "protecting" the consumer but in reality it is protecting the outrageous charges of the "registered cablers".

    It happens all over. In California, IIRC, we still can't install plastic water supply lines in houses because they are "unsafe". Funny, though, that they seem to be safe in lots of other states. I'm quite sure that the donations from the plumbing contractors and pipefitters' unions doesn't come into play at all.

    Our yacht club can't buy booze at Costco because the regulations require us to buy from a "distributor", not a manufacturer or retailor. At a informational meeting for club officers the ABC (alcoholic beverage control) spokesman was pestered with the question "why can't we just go to Costco?" and his rather amusing and refreshingly honest answer was, "because you didn't pay your lawmakers as much as the distribution cartel did."

    • Re:Pay off your lawmakers (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:14PM (#12067519)
      [H]is rather amusing and refreshingly honest answer was, "because you didn't pay your lawmakers as much as the distribution cartel did."

      And you call yourselves a yacht club?!? Get some more millionaires in there!

    • While I think I mostly agree with what you say, imagine my complete and utter lack of sympathy for a yacht club that has to pay a little too much for their booze! Ooh, the poor little multimillionaires - my heart is bleeding. :)

      Seriously, I think your point would have more impact if you used a slightly different example. As it is, I had to fight the urge to cheer for that distribution cartel you're complaining about.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • By my definition even the least expensive yachts could not be owned by someone who qualifies as middle class.
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • In many harbors you have two choices to get out to your boat. It doesn't matter if you have a $1000 Cal 20 or a $3million dollar Trumpy. You can row a small pram that you lug back and forth to the water yourself. The other option is to join the yacht club for their launch service. Now to he odds of someone rowing out to a Feadship are very slim and that little 30+ year old sailboat probably is connected to one of those prams left tied the docks. But somewhere in the middle the guy who drives an 8 year

    • Our yacht club can't buy booze at Costco because the regulations require us to buy from a "distributor", not a manufacturer or retailor. At a informational meeting for club officers the ABC (alcoholic beverage control) spokesman was pestered with the question "why can't we just go to Costco?" and his rather amusing and refreshingly honest answer was, "because you didn't pay your lawmakers as much as the distribution cartel did."

      "The land of the free"

      Alex

  • AU governments site down (Score:4, Funny)

    by nberardi ( 199555 ) * on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:06PM (#12067433) Homepage
    Looks like the AU government's website needs to be audited. They obviously don't have the bandwidth to handle a /. :)

  • One Word (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Deanasc ( 201050 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:07PM (#12067453) Homepage Journal
    Wireless!
    • A buzzword is not a solution for everyone.

      Wireless would never work for a lot of people in my office. We have to transfer too many large files back and forth from the servers. Some of us are hurting on a 100mbit switched network and really wish we had a gigabit network. 802.11g would be nearly unusable, and 802.11b would shut the company down.
    • Another word: bandwidth. Or lack of it with wireless. Bandwidth on wireless is like the local cable-modem segment - shared among all users.

      Furthermore, wireless doesn't work well in practice for VoIP - especially if you want to use any encryption.
    • You still need to somehow interface it to something that is not wireless, that generally involves wire, still requiring this (albeit outrageous) permit.
  • ...I hope that's not the case in the UK.
    2 of us have just recently finished the 140 port setup in our new offices...

    • Re:damn... (Score:3, Funny)

      by clickster ( 669168 )
      This is Joe Union. We have reported your illegal cabling activities to the authorities. Taking a note from our RIAA fellows, you can avoid significant prosecution by simply e-mailing us the following: Name: Address: Phone #: Birth Date: Mother's Maiden Name: First School You Attended: National ID Number: Please e-mail all of that information to Foro Forscamoor at trustworthy@nationalbankofnigeria.com Thank you and God have murcy on you kind Sur.

  • Applies to cabling companies only (?) (Score:3, Informative)

    by LordEd ( 840443 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:18PM (#12067559)
    I grabbed this line before the site got /.ed:
    "The Cabling Requirements for Business Code requires
    cabling businesses to ensure that cablers working for them do cabling work that meets the CPRs." (my bold)
    So the way it sounds to me is that if you are a cabling business and either provide poor quality or subcontract poor quality work, you can be fined for it.

  • Plenum (Score:5, Informative)

    by bloosqr ( 33593 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:24PM (#12067651) Homepage
    The reasoning is that most people do not realize cabling can be serious fire hazards. You can not use regular cat* cable when wiring up an office and/or house but must use plenum rated cable. Furthermore generic cables can have toxic side effects when burning. There is an interesting history of the use of pvc versus plenum here. [wireville.com]


    Also take a look at the cable faq [connectworld.net] and you will notice that it is very obvious that one really must be careful in installing the right type of cable w/ the appropriate firestops between floors (etc).

    • Actually... (Score:5, Informative)

      by LordEd ( 840443 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:35PM (#12067807)
      You must use plenum when wiring through air ducts/passageways in home/offices. The reason is that the regular plastic casing becomes toxic (as do many things when burned), so you want to limit that toxicity to a single room instead of across your entire building transmitted through air ducts. You can use regular cat for wiring that does not involve bridging floors or that goes through ventilation areas.

      From the FAQ:
      Plenum: Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) air return area -- mostly drop ceilings. Also below raised floors (where the underfloor area is used for ventilation).
      • The reason is that the regular plastic casing becomes toxic (as do many things when burned)

        Things like carpet, furniture, electronics - just about the entire contents of the normal home or office.

        • Exactly, the Plenum requirement gives job security to professional cable installers but most likely exists to give job security to fire inspectors and give a source of revenue to cities when violations occur.

    • You can not use regular cat* cable when wiring up an office and/or house but must use plenum rated cable.

      I don't think this is right... why then would they even sell non-plenum solid-core cable if it's not legal to install it anywhere? (Or do you just mean AU?)

      I've installed plenty of cat5 before and to my knowledge the only place you have to use plenum cable (which sells for like 5x the price of normal cable) is where you run the cable through air circulation ducts or spaces. Most of the time, this mea
      • You would need some extremely unusual circumstances to cause cat5 to burn of its own accord.

        Like getting Slashdotted?
      • IIRC, plenum cable does give off quite nasty toxic fumes when when subjected to flame but is more fire retardant and self extinguishing and I believe the gases are less flamable as well. This property is desired expecially in cable going through multiple floors where a cat5 'fuse' could circumvent all the other fire protection.

    • Re:Plenum (Score:4, Informative)

      by sribe ( 304414 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @04:05PM (#12068860)
      You can not use regular cat* cable when wiring up an office and/or house but must use plenum rated cable.

      No you don't. You need to use plenum cable when you run cable through a plenum. That's why they call it plenum cable. If you don't know what the word plenum means, maybe you should look up plenum somewhere.

  • Quality work? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jim_redwagon ( 845837 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:36PM (#12067812) Journal
    Did anyone else notice the fine job the 'registered cabler' did installing the RJ45 on page 2 of the brochure [aca.gov.au]? That's quality, dead on center work there. ;-)
  • how does this compare to legislation in other parts of the world?

    In a word, badly. In another word, Fsked.

    I've done all my phone and network cable, about 1200 feet, myself and generally wouldn't trust someone else to do it. Sorry.
  • How much would it cost you to become a registered cabler?

    • Well that is the answer if you want to do your own plumbing in Minnesota and live in a "community of over 2000 people". (I looked this up a few years ago) Apparently it takes that long to figure out that unpressurized water runs downhill, hot water pipes cannot be connected to cold pipes, and other such things that really are trivial.

      Mind even after all this there are still inspectors to make sure the professionals are doing a good job. In my experience with professional plumbers the inspectors are requ

      • But what if they are right? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by azav ( 469988 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @04:03PM (#12068827) Homepage Journal
        As I read all the responses, and remember that I do live in earthquake central (SF Bay area), I wonder, "what if the govt is right - at least in principle?"

        Sure, plugging in cables is NOT HARD but yes, there are other things to worry about - fire shielding, run through an area people will not want to nail or drill into, and probably more that we don't know about. Stuff that once is mentioned, makes perfect sense but wouldn't be thought up unless someone mentioned it.

        Hey, in California, I can see why you would need to be licensed to install PVC pipes. These earthquake things don't happen all the time but when they do, you'll want good bracing and give in your plumbing.

        And then again, other parts of CA, do tend to get washed out with mudslides or decide to catch on fire on a semi yearly basis.

        All I'm saying is that there's proooobably more behind the scenes that we're dismissing because we don't know about it.

  • Asked someone once about the price... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by actor_au ( 562694 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @02:43PM (#12067919) Homepage
    ...of having a full LAN installed in my house(four-five outlets, one hub on a one story building with plasterwood walls(I think, I know they aren't solid brick)) he said about $700 and it would take about 2 days.

    I went and bought some wall mounts, screws, sockets etc, stole some cable from an industrial site(they were junking it and the guy on guard just let me take it before anyone asks) then sent my younger, and thinner, brother up into the roof to drag cables to the random holes I'd drilled into the ceiling inside the cupboards around the house, I had some problems with setting the wall ports(didn't know how to set the coloured wires right) and gave up on the project.

    I left it for about five months, went back and using a newly acquired cable tester I set-up the sockets correctly, installed the hub and had a fully working LAN in about two hours.

    Overall cost to me was about $70 and $20 for the cable tester which I gave to a friend as a Christmas present.
    It took about six months from getting the cable to finishing the network but I believe I could have finished it in lest than a day if I'd given a damn about getting it done.

    Essentially the asking cost was a rip off.

    Another guy I know has a house they spent a summer networking, drilling through solid brick, hanging through air-con ducts and other random adventures until the ten of them and four other rooms were fully networked, their kitchen cupboard is four switches, two webservers/fileservers and some wheatbix no-one want to eat. It cost them a lot of spare time but other than a few drill bits, wall sockets and the cable their costs were non-existant, a cabler would have probably done it faster, but would have charged them at least $2000 for the work as well as a few hundred for the part.

    I know about five other people that have networked their houses on almost no budget. Wires stapled to walls, running over rooftops and around the outside of buildings through walls and up attics.
    Its a hobby and nothing anymore difficult or dangerous than putting up a painting and that you need some kind of certification for it is insane.
    • Ack! Maybe the AU is on to something :)
    • >Essentially the asking cost was a rip off.

      Er, you were able to get the cable for free, which is a substantial cost of the project. You also were able to get the labor for free via your own actions and that of your brother, which is a substantial cost of the project.

      So no, $700 for that wasn't a rip-off; that takes into account (a) insurance, (b) warranty and (c) the guy makes his living doing this.

      Same with your friend; he drilled through brick, hung air-con ducts, etc. -- that's a LOT of labor, and
  • It is really hard for me to believe that someone cannot install their own LAN cable though the building themselves. The only reason electrical work should be licensed and checked is that it includes fire hazard as well as electricution hazard. LAN cables would be near impossible to set fire to themselves, and it is impossible to electrocute yourself with the tiny voltage that LAN cables carry. This must be purely a union fix on the market. Or something really stupid.

    We had the same problem here, but th
  • Use wireless and switch all your telephones to VoIP (perhaps using the excellent Asterisk [asterisk.org]).

    Lets see them audit that.

  • Cost & LV licensing (Score:3, Informative)

    by redelm ( 54142 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @03:19PM (#12068334) Homepage
    What do you consider an outrageous quote? I'd expect about US$100/run, or US $4000 for your job. Less if uncertified, everything is short and can be gang pulled. More if spread apart or difficult to run.

    Licensing is a different issue. LAN cabling is considered low-voltage electric wiring and various governments sometimes like to control it. Sometimes for the permit & licence income, sometimes to support guilds, occasionally even for public protection (EMI & plenum smoke hazard). I believe *.de requires licencing.

  • It goes like this : (Score:3, Informative)

    by ColaMan ( 37550 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @04:06PM (#12068864) Journal
    About 15 years ago, our australian telco (Telecom in those days) began to lose it's monopoly. Authorities realised that soon just about any joe from just about any company would be coming around ,fiddling with phone lines. But, oops. Telecom (now telstra) still owns the local loop of copper between the exchange and your house.... and the potential for fark-related-hilarity was obvious to most people.

    What to do?

    Austel, the telecommunications authority, decided to implement a licensing scheme. Basically , if any part of your network interfaces with the phone lines coming from the street, well, you need to be an austel-licensed cabler to do anything with it. Becoming an austel licensed cabler is not hard, any monkey can do go through the motions.

    Perhaps you should investigate asterisk (as some people have mentioned previously). Get all your lines terminated at a patch panel, put a nice server in the cupboard and ethernet from there on out to IP phones and the like. It might come out at the same price at the end, but you'll end up with a much more flexible system. You'll also have the advantage of getting on the IP telecom bandwagon and probably save a heap'o'cash in the long run on your phone bills.

  • This Old House (Score:4, Funny)

    by St. Arbirix ( 218306 ) <matthew,townsend&gmail,com> on Monday March 28, 2005 @04:42PM (#12069308) Homepage Journal
    This reminds me of the time Bob Villa built his own house and I think aired some of the construction on his show. As soon as he got done the State of California stepped in and told him that since he didn't get any permits or professional electricians/plumbers/carpenters to work on the house they were going to have to condemn the place.

    It's too expensive to be a general handyman for anything anymore.

  • Hmmmm ... not quite (Score:4, Informative)

    by jann ( 253364 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @05:20PM (#12069830)
    I am an Australian Network engineer (LAN and WAN) and have done a lot of work in/with the telecommunications sector.

    The requirement actually is "thou shal not connect anything to the PSTN" which is not austel approved and/or installed by a licenced installer. You can do anything you want with your LAN, you can do anything you want with your telephone cabling on your companies side of the PABX ... but you are not allowed to play with the PSTN side.

    But, get your cabeling done by pros unless you know what you are doing. Ask yourself these quick questions:

    Do I know when to use single core cable rather than 3 strand (and can I tell the difference between the RJ connectors for them)?
    What is the maximim distance for an ethernet cable run?
    Do I understand how to terminate cables and their wiring patterns?
    Do I know how to test a wiring run?

    If you didn't answer an emphatic yes to all those q's get the pros in. If you want to play at cabel monkey do it at home.

    J
    • I would have said single-core for permanent, multi-strand for patch/other leads which need to bend easily. 180m max for ethernet. Couldn't tell you the wiring patterns from memory, although I know that the pairs need to be balanced.

      Not so sure about testing, I'd just use a cable tester, so I doubt that's right.

      Not that I'm qualified or anything :)
  • I'm a data installer for a large state university in the US. The the local, state, and federal governments have no problem with "uncertified" individuals working with various data and voice cabling mediums.

    Granted, we have licensed individuals to do all our AC work, such as running power to the racks in the data center, and more often than not they pull ethernet and fiber for us, because it's part of their trade, and keeps them busy. (Our in-house elecs are really nice guys).

    When it comes down to the

  • Home Wiring (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FiremanJoe ( 871490 )
    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 eac

  • Another advangate of pro cablers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sakusha ( 441986 ) on Monday March 28, 2005 @11:49PM (#12073075)
    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.
  • Just over a year ago, myself and some mates ran some external cat5e from my house, to my neighbours house (two houses along) to join our networks.

    We knew all the laws regarding separating from power, depth of trenches, what sort of cable and conduits etc. to use, so we did it. One of us had an open cabling registration, and five of the other six were in the middle of our cabling course, so legally we were covered there.

    It worked great, I put up pictures on popular aussie geek site Whirlpool [whirlpool.net.au] and thought n
  • For businesses, you might want to have it done for liability (read insurance) but the rate are low enough that it might not be worth the trouble to do it yourself for big jobs.

    I remember doing the odd cable in a place I worked at. We just used plenum cable in the suspended ceiling in case it was used as a return for the ventilation.

    As far as I know, you don't need a permit either way.

    In government places, however, you don't touch the wires in the walls. It's a union thing...
  • From the FAQs on the site:

    ...The rules make sure the cabling is done safely and that the cabler has the skills to do
    the job.
    Cabling which is installed incorrectly can result in your phones, faxes, Internet or alarm systems not working properly. Faulty cabling can also increase the risk of safety hazards such as electrocution.

    It's like the building regulators saying your electrical wiring should be done by a professional. This is a "cover". Basically, if DIY and something goes wrong, the insurance compan

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