What do you pay/charge for Networking/Telephone points

I

Ice2Cool

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Hey guys,

So just wanted to ask. Im arranging for a whole lot of new data and telephone point to be installed in my office and was quite suprised at how expensive it is. I am being charge R750 per cat 6 network point (the hub is probably about 4-5 meters away) and R350 per telephone point. Is this normal? What do you guys pay/charge?

I thought it was quite expensive.
 
Yikes.
That is pretty expensive, yes.
A cat5e socket costs about R30, RJ-11 costs about R20. Cables are like what, R10/m for Cat6? RJ-11 is like R1/m.... so you're being taken for a huge ride. Even if that includes labour, you're still paying too much.
 
Sounds expensive by PE standards but each installation presents it's own challenges and can only be costed by someone on the ground.

You should be able to get a second quote easily in Durban.
 
froot said:
Yikes.
That is pretty expensive, yes.
A cat5e socket costs about R30, RJ-11 costs about R20. Cables are like what, R10/m for Cat6? RJ-11 is like R1/m.... so you're being taken for a huge ride. Even if that includes labour, you're still paying too much.
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You're only taking into account costs of materials - labour is the biggest cost involved in these jobs and as someone else above mentioned, each job presents different challenges - some which can take plenty of time (ie. labour/money) to solve. That's why people charge a flat rate (eg. R650-750) for points because at the end of the day/month/year, the easier jobs and the tougher jobs generally average out.

Also remember, the "labour" hired to do the job also doesn't account for a management fee, if you're getting a "premium" service company to oversee the installation.
It's one thing to get a bunch of labourers to pull a cable - it's a different ballgame knowing all the ins and outs of how network cable works/doesn't work, all of the best practices and all the rest.

I'd happily pay "upper" market rates which seem to be between R600 and R800 per point, knowing that someone who really knows what they're doing is overseeing the job. The cabling guys love cutting corners metaphorically and literally speaking ;)
 
If you think thats expensive you have never wired up a 10 floor building with 50 data and telephone points per floor to Krone specifications. I cant think of any worse job in IT than pulling wire.
 
froot said:
Yikes.
That is pretty expensive, yes.
A cat5e socket costs about R30, RJ-11 costs about R20. Cables are like what, R10/m for Cat6? RJ-11 is like R1/m.... so you're being taken for a huge ride. Even if that includes labour, you're still paying too much.
Click to expand...
You are forgetting things like trunking. Which in itself is a lot of work to install.
 
ghoti said:
You are forgetting things like trunking. Which in itself is a lot of work to install.
Click to expand...
... and chasing concrete for floor mount pedestals ain't fun either, not that I've ever had to do it myself thankfully.
 
I run cables myself. But if I were on the Cabling business, I wouldnt charge less than R500 per point. Maybe R400 per point if is over 10 points.
 
Well there trunking is already in place. Its just a matter of running it in the ceiling from the hub to the trunking. I probably have about 400 points which they maintain in the building so I consider myself a large customer of theirs. We probably spend about R10k a month with them hence me thinking R750 a point is damn expensive.

Thanks guys, Ill look around.
 
Dean said:
Also remember, the "labour" hired to do the job also doesn't account for a management fee, if you're getting a "premium" service company to oversee the installation.
It's one thing to get a bunch of labourers to pull a cable - it's a different ballgame knowing all the ins and outs of how network cable works/doesn't work, all of the best practices and all the rest.
Click to expand...

Some cabling companies might be cheaper but they might end up doing things like running network cabling right next to power cables which can cause interference
 
We had a set fee with our cabling company for R650/point, regardless of the length. So sometimes we score, sometimes they score, and at the end of the day it sort of works out for everyone.

Expensive, yes, but like it was mentioned in a couple of these posts, it is important that a) the guys actually know what they are doing, case in point being the data runs next to power cables, and b) they are Molex certified. The latter might not be a deal breaker for a lot of people, it is for us though.
 
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I used to whine about networking costs, until I spent a year building large physical networks. I have pulled enough wire to last a life time. I honestly think its the worst job in IT. Ill pay someone else to it these days.
 
ghoti said:
I used to whine about networking costs, until I spent a year building large physical networks. I have pulled enough wire to last a life time. I honestly think its the worst job in IT. Ill pay someone else to it these days.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think it even worse then doing desktop support...
 
Yup, I agree... once you have done enough cabling you know that is better to get somebody else to do it for you... and once you know what is involved, you know if they have done a good job and no BS.

I believe that any decent IT should know how to run and patch cables as networking is the bread & butter of our business. But is probably more cost effective to get other people as you can do more important things than "Pulling Wires".
 
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