A fibre network, walls left intact

Why a network installation usually means building work

A traditional installation brings copper cables to every room, often more than one: data, telephone, television. They are thick cables that have to be hidden in a chase in the wall or closed in trunking, and along the way they need cabinets and intermediate devices, because copper does not go beyond 90 metres.

The result is weeks of building work, dust, walls to close up and repaint, and rooms that cannot be used for days.

A transparent strand on the wall

The fibre we install is a thin transparent strand. It is fixed directly to the wall, follows the skirting board and rises in the corner up to the access point, with no trunking and no invasive work. Once the job is done the room stays as it was.

A single fibre per room is enough for everything: internet, television, telephone and building systems travel on the same cable, each separate from the others. Fewer cables to install also means less work in every room.

When the routes are already there

Many buildings have existing conduits, laid for old installations. Where they exist and are free, the fibre runs inside them and cannot be seen at all. Where they do not, it is fixed to the wall.

The choice is made room by room during the site survey, when we trace the fibre route from the central point to the last access point.

Working with the building open

There is no need to stop the business. There is no demolition and no dust, so whoever works or lives in the building carries on, and finished rooms are back in use straight away.

• Installation is organised around the hours the building has available
• The partner crews we coordinate work out of hours too
• No chases to cut, no walls to close up, no drying times

For a hotel this means wiring the rooms without closing the hotel: we cover it on the page about fibre Wi-Fi for hotels.

Historic buildings and places with restrictions

In historic buildings, listed buildings and places with environmental restrictions, cutting a chase or fitting trunking is often not possible, or requires permits and long lead times.

A fibre network suits these cases well: the cable is almost invisible, needs no work on the masonry and uses the routes that already exist. For complexes with several buildings, fibre reaches up to 950 metres with a single cable, with no intermediate devices to place along the route.

The work plan

After the site survey the work plan is simple to organise: we know where the fibre runs in every room, which materials are needed and how long each step takes. We work out the schedule step by step, based on how the building is made.

The five steps, from site survey to final testing, are described on the page from site survey to final testing.