TCF Premises Wiring Code of Practice
The TCF Premises Wiring Working Party was established in March 2009 to prepare a self-regulated
Code of Practice for Residential and Small Office Premises Wiring, which will be adopted by TCF members and other interested parties.
The scope of this project was to develop a Code of Practice that will be used by professional installers involved in providing generic or “structured” cabling for telecommunications and other services in both residential and small office premises.
The Code sets out minimum requirements for premise wiring while laying the framework for more sophisticated installations, providing guidelines for installers on acceptable practices, verification and qualification testing and certification of compliance; and promote end user confidence in the fact that their home/small office will be able to support a range of different service offerings.
Review 2011 and Public Consultation
As a direct result of the Ultra-fast Broadband initiative launched by the Government in 2010 the TCF Premises Wiring Working Party was requested to reconvene and review the Code to incorporate recommendations for multi-dwelling units (MDUs) and fibre optic cable.
On the 1 July 2011 the TCF Board approved the revised TCF Premises Wiring Code of Practice.
Revised TCF Premises Wiring Code of Practice 2011 - Endorsed
Revised TCF Premises Wiring Code of Practice 2011 - summary of changes
Communication
The Premises Wiring Working Party has created two communication pamphlets aimed to assist homeowners and cable installers with advice on wiring requirements for telecommunications and other wired services. The information presented in these pamphlets supports the TCF Premises Wiring Code of Practice.
1. Are you wiring for a smart home? - advice for homeowners.
2. Are you wiring for a smart home? - advice for cable installers.
Background
The vast majority of homes and small businesses are wired in accordance with PTC 103 (Code of Practice for Residential type and Small Office Customer Premises Wiring) for PSTN voice and low speed data services.
The development of a Code is considered essential as the technical and functional demands of next generation broadband services are likely to exceed the capabilities of PTC 103 compliant wiring systems. This is due to a number of factors including:
- demand for integrated services in the home;
- Ethernet LANs;
- increasing broadband line rates; and,
- service providers wishing to deploy multiple services over a single telecommunications infrastructure.
Various standards have existed for generic cabling for homes including the Telecom published Code of Practice (PTC 106) which was promoted for use in fibre sub-divisions. However this standard was not utilised in a consistent, co-ordinated manner by those responsible for telecommunications wiring and/or those building or renovating homes, the TCF Premises Wiring Code of Practice has now superseded the PTC106.
There are various technological and economic drivers for agreeing standards for premise wiring including:
Technological drivers:
- International & National Standards – recommendation is 1000BaseT (vs. PSTN).
- The universal RJ45 jack (vs. BT Jack).
- Advance of ADSL2+ and VDSL technologies (vs. PSTN and ADSL).
- The continuing development of Cat 6 and Cat 6a UTP and fibre cabling standards.
Economic drivers:
- Protection of home owners’ investment.
- Minimising the direct cost of poorly performing home networks.
- Encouraging the uptake and use of Next Generation (multi-play) services.
Related Links
Working Party Establishment
This working party was established in March 2009.