Derisking communications installations

Poor design, installation and testing of customer cabling is severely impacting the existing ICT infrastructure, costing contractors time and money. Some non-compliant installations are also posing severe health and safety hazards to workers and their surrondings. ICT and telecommunications expert Lawrence McKenna is urging the industry to lift its game or suffer huge losses.

Installing electrical cabling in the wrong coloured conduit and not understanding ‘customer cabling’ are the two key issues that seem to cause the greatest conflict in electrical and cabling projects and inevitably lead to rework that costs the electrical contractor time and money. It may also lead to liquidated damages.

What exacerbates the situation further for the electrical contractor is that the electrical design engineers/consultants are equally uninformed. Let’s investigate why conduit and cable is such a cause of concern.

Conduit colour

Most sites have LV (supply) cables installed in white conduit when they actually require an orange conduit. When contractors are informed about this issue and are asked to remove and restate all the LV cabling, they often respond by saying, “Where did this come from? Why is it wrong? There is nothing in AS/NZS 3000 about this.”

The Wiring Rules (AS/NZS 3000) do not direct the installer to AS 1345. Furthermore, most, if not all, electrical specifications (eg, NATSPEC) state that conduit installation shall comply to AS1345:1995 - Identification of the contents of pipes, conduits and ducts.

The Australian Standard 1345, Section 5 discusses Base Identification Colour, Pipe Marker and Supplementary Colours. Base Identification Colour is the single colour that may cover all or part of the pipe. The AS 1345 Table 1 (summarised below), states the pipe identification colours and their uses.

Table 1: AS 1345 Pipe identification colours and their uses (summary)

Colour name and basic identification	Applications	Exclusions
Orange - electric power	Electricity supply circuits	Extra-low voltage circuits
White - communications	Telephone and other communication circuits Extra-low voltage supply	**

** no exclusions listed. Refer to AS/CA S009:2013 (Installation requirements for customer cabling (Wiring rules)) Section 8.3.1. It states prohibited conduit colours for Customer Cable, whether indoor or outdoor in Table 1.

Figure 1: Table 1 from AS/CA S009:2013 (mandatory cabling standard).

One reason why contractors say they install white conduit LV is because orange fades in sunlight. PVC conduit has UV inhibitor added - UV PVC. Titanium dioxide is the ultraviolet (UV) inhibitor used to manufacture PVC products. It’d be ideal to provide a non-chalking durable-grade TiO₂ containing coated particles that do not leach.

Customer cabling

Customer cabling is widely misunderstood. Most individuals believe that this only refers to telephone and data cabling. To understand what ‘customer cabling’ is, we need to look at the Telecommunications Act 1997. The relevant definitions within the Act worth highlighting are:

Communications includes any communication:

(a) Whether between persons and persons, things and things or persons and things; and
(b)Whether in the form of speech, music or other sounds; and
(c)Whether in the form of data; and
(d)Whether in the form of text; and
(e)Whether in the form of visual images (animated or otherwise); and
(f)Whether in the form of signals; and
(g)Whether in any other form; and
(h)Whether in any combination of forms. It includes connection otherwise than by means of physical contact, for example, a connection by means of radiocommunication [s7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997].

Line means a wire, cable, optical fibre, tube, conduit, waveguide or other physical medium used, or for use, as a continuous artificial guide for or in connection with carrying communications by means of guided electromagnetic energy. [s7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.]

Customer cabling means a line that is used, installed ready for use or intended for use on the customer side of the boundary of a telecommunications network. [s20 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.]

So what does this all mean? Put simply, it means: “Customer Cabling is any wire, cable, coaxial cable, optical fibre, tube, conduit, cable tray, duct, waveguide that is used, installed ready for use or intended for use for ELV signalling and communications, that is installed ready for connection or the capability or intended for future (possible) connection to a Telecommunications Carrier, via either wire, optical fibre, or radio communications.”

Now a common example that always causes issues:

In the diagram above, the light sensor cable is in the orange conduit with the LV. It isn’t going to be connected to a telecommunications carrier. The contractor will maintain the lights and the lighting control system. The engineer, suppliers and manufacturers approve of it. It has always been done like that but is it right?

When asked the same question, ACMA’s response was:

“It makes absolutely no difference what type of data cable is used between your Lighting Control Telemetry unit and the Light Sensors. The issue is that the cable (CAT 5 in the diagram) is telecommunications customer cabling and as such the mandatory separation requirements between these data cables and LV, specified by both AS/ACIF S009 and AS/NZS 3000, must be adhered to. The short answer is that you cannot legally install data cable ‘in the LV pathway, un-segregated’. The Wiring Rules apply to all telecommunications customer cabling which would include the data cabling to/from your telemetry units.

“Telecommunications customer cabling includes, but is not limited to, telephone cabling, lift cabling, data cabling (which includes Cat 5/5e/6/7 etc LAN cables), security cabling and fire alarm cabling that connects, is intended to connect or can be connected to the Australian telecommunications network. Connection to the Australian telecommunications network is not limited to physical means, it also includes, but is not limited to, a wireless connection such as via a wireless LAN access point or a 3G/GSM modem.

“All telecommunications customer cabling must also be installed by a Registered Cabler in accord with the Wiring Rules, including a TCA-1 form.

“Additionally, the ACMA requires Registered Cablers only to use telecommunications customer cables and associated customer cabling equipment which must comply with AS/CA S008:2010 Requirements for customer cabling products. Any Registered Cabler who does not comply with the above requirements could have their registrations cancelled, and may be issued with an infringement notice.” (This can be up to $20,400.)

Conclusions and recommendations

• AS 1345 has been around for 18 years. The reason why most organisations and designers mandate the colour code is stated in AS 1345 Section 6.1. The objective of the base identification colour is to provide workers immediate information about the contents. Orange UV PVC conduit should solely be used for electrical supply and white conduit (except for specific Defence applications) for communications and ELV. This will save time, money and effort; and contractors can avoid risk and safety and liability issues.
• The Telecommunications Act has been around for 16 years. The figure below provides a summary of what ‘customer cabling’ is. Remember that only a Registered Cabler can install customer cabling (and conduit), and a TCA-1 form will need to be provided to the client.

For more information, please contact the Communications Alliance, ACMA or an industry body (eg, BICSI). Please visit the Communications Alliance website for free copies of S009 and S008.