Overview

This chapter covers, among other topics, home and office telephone wiring. This was work formerly done exclusively by telephone company employees because those companies owned of all the wiring and equipment, inside as well as outside. Because of the deregulation of the telephone industry, this work is now available to electrical contractors, electricians, and other independent telecommunications system installers.

Since deregulation, additional work opportunities for these independent contractors have opened up because of the increasing popularity of structured wiring. These are buzz words for the wiring and cabling being installed in homes and offices to provide access to other audio and visual services beside connections to the public telephone system.

Those services, now called multimedia, include cable television, computer networking, and connections to home entertainment centers for every room where they are desired. Short of installing new structured wiring, there is also an ongoing need to replace existing telephone station wiring with more advanced unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) wiring to support the ever-increasing data rates needed for computer networking. Wiring and cable installation clearly have gone well beyond basic wiring for electric power and lighting.

After deregulation the telephone companies were obliged to set demarcation points or jacks in homes, offices, and other facilities. They separated their property and responsibilities from those of the property owners. However, the telcos remain responsible for installing and maintaining the telephone feed lines from poles or underground ducts to the customers' demarcation points and making the necessary connections.

In theory, any home...