Cabling and Wi-Fi: price per cable drop

How many extension leads and adapters are holding your office network together?

Usually more than you care to admit. Cable runs along the skirting board from room to room, the switch sits on a shelf in the stationery cupboard, the access point hangs by the entrance and never reaches the meeting room. It works — until someone moves a desk.

A network that survives a reshuffle and growth

You get a network you never have to come back to: every point in place, numbered and tested with an instrument. First the plan — where people sit, where the meeting rooms are, where cameras and printers will go — then the cable.

Everything meets in one cabinet: a patch panel, labelled patch leads, order instead of a ball of wires. We site Wi-Fi from a survey, not by eye, so the meeting room does not drop out the moment a call starts.

When the work is done you get a diagram: what runs where, and where each point lands.

What a cable drop includes

included: A route plan: where people sit, where the meeting rooms, cameras and printers are
included: Cable run along proper routes, not the shortest line
included: An outlet at the work point and termination in the cabinet
included: Patch panel, labelled patch leads and a tidy cabinet
included: A number and a label on every point at both ends
included: Every line tested with an instrument, results on paper
included: A network diagram: what runs where and where each point lands
included: We clear up after ourselves and take the offcuts away
paid to the vendor: Cable, outlets and patch panels — at the supplier's invoice, mark-up $0.00
paid to the vendor: Switches and access points — at the supplier's invoice, mark-up $0.00

Your price

Cat6 cable drop

$165 per point

Labour: route, run, outlet, termination, test.

What the tier includes

included: Everything listed above, for every point

Cat6A cable drop

$210 per point

The same, built for ten gigabit: headroom for the next kit.

What the tier includes

included: Everything listed above, for every point
paid to the vendor: Category 6A cable and connectors

Extras

not included: Switch installation and configuration$165 per device
not included: Access point installation and configuration$250 per device
not included: Wi-Fi survey per floor before installation$1,000 per floor
not included: Network kit watched over after installationon quote
not included: Servers and network looked after$90 per server per month
not included: One-off work outside the project$112 an hour

Questions

Why are cable and hardware a separate line?

Because that money is not ours. Cable, outlets, patch panels, switches and access points come at the supplier's invoice with a $0.00 mark-up — you pay exactly what they cost and you see it apart from our labour.

Can Wi-Fi be installed without a survey?

Yes, if the office is small and the walls are ordinary. The $1,000 per floor survey is for concrete, glass, warehouses or two or three access points per floor: without it they go up by eye, and the signal dies during the meeting-room call.

How does Cat6A differ from Cat6, and is it worth paying more?

Speed and headroom. Cat6 covers what an office needs today; Cat6A is built for ten gigabit and will outlast the next generation of kit. The difference in labour is $45 a point, paid once. Redoing it later costs more: you pay for the whole lot again.

We are moving to a new office. When should we call you in?

Before the fit-out, not after. Routes, the cabinet and the point positions are far easier to set while the walls are open; once it is finished, the same job goes along skirting boards and through suspended ceilings. We draw the plan from your floor layout in advance.

Cabling, switching and Wi-Fi installation