If you are looking to get Network Cabling for business, this article might help you understand various factors that may affect the cost of cabling.

Choosing the type of Network Cable:

The first and most important factor is choosing what type of network cable you need. Most of the new installations are going with Cat6 Cable. However, if your business is data-intensive, you might want to go with Cat6a or Cat7 Cable. Cat5e may also be an option and least expensive option, but Cat6 is recommended for all new installations. Cat6 supports data transfer speeds up to 10 Gbps at 250 MHz and offers stricter blueprints for crosstalk and system noise. Cat6 is expensive but faster than Cat5e and better suited to handle the fast pace of Gigabit Ethernet networks.

Ceiling Type:
Another important factor to consider is what type of ceiling you have in your building. Based on the ceiling type, you will have to either use Plenum rated Cable or a Riser cable.

If you have a Drop Ceiling, you will have to use Plenum rated or FT6 Cable. Cost of labor in drop ceiling is also less as compared to the open ceiling. Cabling is as easy as sliding a ceiling tile open and running the cable through. This type of ceiling allows for the cables to be easily hidden and is the least difficult to work with and is a dominant ceiling type in most commercial buildings. With the Open ceiling, Cabling techs have to spend more time as open ceiling requires meticulous attention to detail being that the cables and beams will be exposed and time must be spent to make the cabling aesthetically pleasing.

Fiber Cabling
When you’re planning a new network cable installation or considering upgrades to an existing network, you might want to consider using fiber optic cabling. Fiber Cable provides much faster data transfer as compared to copper. Not only speed wise, but Fiber is also very effective when it comes to distance. Cat6 or Cat5e is limited to 90 meters or 300 feet while Fiber can go upto Kilometers without any extender. In addition, the signal loss over 500 meters in fiber is negligible, but copper has very high loss at high frequencies. Fiber is definitely expensive as compared to Copper but considering the advantages it has, you might want to consider Fiber run for future-proofing and long-run basis.