New guidelines for telecommunications wiring

Growth in digital services and data usage has led the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF) to release new guidelines for installing telecommunications wiring within a premise.

The TCF says changing home technology needs means an update around principles and best practices of planning, installing maintaining a premise's wiring system is required, so it can deliver good long-term telecommunication service performance and reliability for New Zealand consumers.

"Since the last guidelines were published in 2011, there has been exponential growth in both digital services and data usage," says Geoff Thorn, CEO of the TCF.

"Nowadays, it's not unusual for every member of a family to be online at the same time, in different rooms, using multiple devices and consuming a variety of content," he says.

"It's important to understand some of the fundamentals of how to network a premises to get the best online user experience.

Thorn says good wiring is vital as it is complementary to Wi-Fi in the home.

"Many people use Wi-Fi within their homes, sharing their internet connection across multiple devices," he explains. "Good premises wiring is complementary to Wi-Fi and can provide faster connections with greater levels of consistency, reliability and security to wired devices.

Thorn says greater awareness is needed on how some basic premise's wiring design decisions can significantly impact the delivery of broadband and telephony services to the home, particularly as subscription to broadband services accelerates.

An area of concern, Thorn says, is that when connecting an existing home to modern telecommunication services, it is common to find the lower performing, traditional 2-pair premises voice wiring systems.

"This traditional 'daisy chain' wiring style, where one room is connected to the next, is unsuitable for modern home networking purposes; internet connectivity requires a different network layout to the traditional voice network," Thorn says.

 "Everybody from consumers to property developers, architects, builders, electricians and cable installers should read these guidelines, otherwise it could result in a costly retrofit later on," says Thorn.

In addition, the TCF has produced information to help consumers understand how their property should be wired for optimum delivery of broadband services.