do you do telephone and data cabling??

[charlie tuna]

i am retired now, but during my 25 years in business i was exposed to the telephone and mainly data cabling facet of our trade. at one time over 60 per cent of our business was data cabling. half the time we where installing the cable and others were terminating it. looking back, i really believe there was a larger profit margin in this part of our trade. i am wondering how many other forum contractors do this work and would share their experience with other contractors -- how you got into it and how you trained your men to terminate it? do you agree on the profit statement? i felt two big demands for this work ---first, during the first wave of networking computers--30 years ago. and then again, when the cat-5 system came about! i know of electrical contractors who actually left the pipe and wire end of the industry to just do data and telephone --- and they were very, very sucessful!!!

 

[tseeba]

Re: do you do telephone and data cabling??

I think it has become pretty common for us to be doing the data and phone. We are already there running other wire, may as well do the network.

Where I am at now I do some CAT5e and a little fiber. We are in the process of an expansion, so I think I'll be doing alot more fiber in the near future.

At my old shop, we had to 2 guys that were BICCSI certified. The boss would be so happy on the days that they were out installing and terminating. Must have been pretty lucrative.

 

[bdarnell]

Re: do you do telephone and data cabling??

We do a lot of structured wiring, both copper and fiber. The initial investment in equipment and training was a little steep, but a few profitable jobs paid it all back.

Now that the specifying engineers are writing the need for certification of installers into the specs, those that have the qualifications seem to get the lion's share of the work.

It's a small part of our electrical contracting business, but the margins are very good. There's still a certain mystique to networking.

 

[jimwalker]

Re: do you do telephone and data cabling??

How would one go about getting certified ? Company i am with now seldom runs any data wire.But we almost always do the piping and boxing,jet line.Seems like we are doing the hard part and might as well do the rest.

 

[tim]

Re: do you do telephone and data cabling??

I took a Leviton training course in St. Louis. I install about 20 systems a year. I run the cables and terminate them also. I think this a outdated technoligy Everyone seems to be going wireless. I wish the phone company still took care of all telephone wiring. Let me stick to line voltage and not low voltage.

 

[jimwalker]

Re: do you do telephone and data cabling??

Wireless is for people that do not care about security or to poor to pay for wires

 

[bdarnell]

Re: do you do telephone and data cabling??

Originally posted by jimwalker:
How would one go about getting certified ?

Depends on what level of certification you are looking for. BICSI trains and certifies wiring design, installation, service, etc. www.bicsi.org

A lot of the manufacturers (Cisco, for example) offer certification in their products. Job specs are often written around a system and require installers to be certified in that system. But for overall training and credentials, BICSI can't be beat.