Major changes to cabling regulation

In 2012, the telecommunications regulator - the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) - introduced major changes to the Cabling Provider Rules (CPR) that will affect most cablers across the country.

These changes apply to cablers who install what the ACMA calls “specialised cabling” within customer premises and include ‘Structured Cabling’ (Cat 5, 6, 7, etc), ‘Optical Fibre’ and ‘Coaxial Cable’ and require any cabler performing such specialised cabling work to hold the necessary competencies relevant to that cabling work.

Historically, an Open Registered cabler could obtain endorsements in each of these fields by completing the corresponding approved training courses. While it was preferred for cablers to carry such endorsements, they were voluntary and therefore not mandated.

However, the ACMA’s new cabling requirements stipulate that, as of 1 July 2014, anyone working in these specialised areas must hold the appropriate competencies. However, cablers who will not be working on specialised cabling won’t need to do anything other than maintain their current level of registration to continue with their conventional telecommunications cabling work.

The current fibre, coax and structured cabling endorsements under the Telecommunications Training packages and Electro-technology Training packages are still valid for Open Registered cablers and will be recognised for the new ACMA specialist cabling competencies.

Note that the Lift Registration competency is not affected by these new changes. It should also be understood that Underground and Aerial competencies are still required for any cabling work in ‘campus-type’ situations that involves the connection of telecommunications cabling between cabled buildings on the same customer site.

The lesser-known ‘Testing’ endorsement to perform cable and system test on customer premises has been a specialist role and is typically recognised as a ‘voluntary’ or ‘industry recognised’ endorsement. Under the new structure, it will not be mandated and remain voluntary.

A new ‘Specialised Broadband Cabling’ competency has been introduced for Restricted Registered cablers who are required to work on specialised cabling for the broadband network. This competency for Restricted CPR holders working on such specialist cabling is for point-to-point work only and is not an endorsement such as has applied to Open Registered cablers in the past. The present ACMA CPRs still apply, as the new competency is very broad.

As of 1 July 2014, only national competencies will be recognised. Vendor training programs for specialist cables will need to be aligned to the ACMA’s competencies criteria if they want them to be ACMA recognised.

The ACMA mandatory requirement is for cablers to be appropriately registered, so it is essential to upgrade a registration as a new competency status is achieved. After 30 June 2014, it will not be acceptable legally to have a competency and then work on specialist cabling unless the appropriate registration is on the holder’s card and the cabler register.

The ACMA has the powers for enforcement as specified in the Telecommunications Act. Warnings, fines and prosecution powers are with the ACMA; however, in future, market forces and co-regulation will also become more dominant than at present.