Get your cabling competencies before 30 June

It’s been almost two years since the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) amended the regulatory requirements to install specialised telecommunications cabling (structured cabling such as Cat 5/6, optical fibre or coax) within customer premises. In that timeframe, cablers have been encouraged to check the status of their registration and take appropriate action to ensure they’re compliant to the new regulations.

That meant having - in addition to an Open Registration - a Structured Cabling endorsement if a cabler installs copper structured cabling, an Optical Fibre endorsement if a cabler installs optical fibre, and a Coax endorsement if a cabler installs coax cabling. Where cablers don’t install any of these cabling types, they don’t need to obtain the related endorsement. It’s that simple.

These amendments were made to ensure cablers had the skills required to perform specialised cabling work for the current and emerging customer cabling environment. Recently, the ACMA asked all the Cabling Registrars, including BICSI, to remind all cablers to urgently take steps to be compliant, because the deadline for this is 30 June - only a few months away.

From 1 July 2014, all cablers undertaking specialised cabling work must have attained the relevant competencies in order to perform specialised cabling work. Cablers who already have the equivalent endorsements will have these transitioned to competencies, so they won’t need to obtain anything extra.

Where cablers do need to obtain competencies, they can do so quite easily by attending and passing relevant specialised cabling courses delivered by registered training organisations (RTOs). The Industry Skills Councils have established that qualified RTOs can offer training for these additional competencies. A full list of qualified RTOs is available on the BICSI Registered Cablers website - www.brca.com.au. The new competencies are further outlined in the ‘Pathways to ACMA Cabling Provider Rules - Cabler Registration’ document that can be downloaded free from www.acma.gov.au.

The new competency requirements took effect on 1 July 2012 with a two-year phase-in period. Cablers who perform specialised cabling work and don’t have the applicable endorsements or competencies need to act quickly as the 30 June deadline is looming, and many of the applicable courses delivered by RTOs are booked out months in advance. So don’t leave it until the last minute to address your compliance to the new cabling regulations.

Failure to attain the applicable competencies doesn’t mean that a cabling registration will cease to be valid. However, if a cabler doesn’t have the applicable competencies, it simply limits the scope of cabling work he’ll be able to perform.

Over the past two years, hundreds of cablers have called the BICSI office seeking clarification and advice on these new regulations and what to do to remain compliant, and they’ve all been assisted to understand what to do for their personal circumstances. If you need assistance on what you need to do to remain compliant as of July 2014, feel free to call BICSI on 1800 306 444 or email to bicsi@bicsi.com.au. Just do it soon.