A leased line and new switches will not save an office if the copper in the walls is the wrong grade, poorly terminated or left over from an earlier fit-out. Traffic still has to travel through that physical layer. When the cabling is wrong, everything above it looks broken.
What structured cabling is
Structured cabling is a standard method for laying out a building's data network. Cables are not pulled from device to device as people arrive. They follow a hierarchy:
- Patch panels in a comms room or cabinet
- Horizontal cabling from each panel to desks, meeting rooms and wireless access point locations
- Patch leads linking devices to wall outlets, and switches to the panels
Runs are labelled, recorded and tested before they go into service. Adding a desk or swapping a device then means changing a patch at the cabinet.
What the cable grades mean
Cat5e supports speeds up to 1Gbps over 100 metres. It served offices for years. It's not specified for new installs.
Cat6 supports 1Gbps over 100 metres and 10Gbps on short runs up to 55 metres. Many existing offices still run on it without trouble.
Cat6A supports 10Gbps over the full 100 metres. New installs should use this grade. Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 access points also need it if they are to run at their rated speed.
Cat8 supports 25 to 40Gbps. That capacity belongs in data centres. A typical office does not need it.
When a re-cable is due
Look at a re-cable if:
- Existing cabling is Cat5 or older
- Data cables share routes with power and pick up interference
- The network drops in a pattern that hardware does not explain
- The office was refurbished and the old cabling stayed in place
- A Wi-Fi upgrade is planned and the current copper cannot support the new access points
Typical UK costs
For a typical UK office:
- Single cable run (per point): £80 to £150
- Small office (20 points): £2,000 to £3,500
- Medium office (50 to 100 points): £5,000 to £12,000
Those figures cover the install, termination, labelling, testing and a certificate for each run. The installer should hand over a test result for every run.
Why poor cabling costs more than the quote
Bad or tired cabling produces faults that come and go. An engineer can spend a morning on switching or firewall settings that are already correct. The fault is often a nicked or crushed cable above the tiles. Copper for a certified install is a modest line on the quote. Time spent diagnosing the wrong layer, and the disruption while the network misbehaves, is where the money goes.
Cabling and the software that uses it
Document processing and workflow automation send their traffic across this LAN. Predictive monitoring watches switches and circuits around the clock. It cannot compensate for copper that was never certified. If you're adding more automated work to the same office network, the copper has to be able to carry it.
How Wanzo installs it
We treat the cabling as part of the same internet services we manage after go-live. Work starts with a survey of the floor. We install to Cat6A, certify each run and leave a record of what sits in the walls. The job finishes when those test results are signed off.
What to do next
If the network drops without a clear hardware cause, or you are planning a wireless refresh, send us the details. Email hello@wanzo.co.uk with the address and an approximate number of desks. We'll tell you if a survey is the right next step.