Installation and cabling
Do you need a licence to run data cable in Australia?
Yes. In Australia, cabling that connects to the phone or internet network, including data cable inside walls, ceilings or floors, must be done by a registered cabler or under one's supervision. You can plug in a modem, mesh units and ready-made leads yourself, as long as no part of the cable is hidden in a wall.
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People usually ask this halfway through a job: the cable is bought, the drill is out, or the electrician is already on site. The short answer is that anything inside the walls needs a registered cabler, and plugging things in does not. If you would rather the cable went in once and properly, that is data cabling by a registered cabler.
What is a cabling licence?
What people call a cabling licence is, in the rules, a cabling registration. Anyone who installs, connects, maintains or repairs telecommunications cabling in a home or business in Australia must be registered, or work under the direct supervision of someone who is.
The rules come from the ACMA, the federal communications regulator. The ACMA does not register cablers itself: four registrars do it on its behalf. A registered cabler carries a card with their number on it, and the registration names what kind of work they may do.
Two things about the word catch people out:
- It is not an electrical licence. Power is licensed by each state. Telecommunications cabling is a separate national registration, and an electrician needs one as well to do it.
- It is sometimes called an Austel licence. AUSTEL was the telecommunications regulator until it was merged into a new authority in July 1997, and the old name stuck in the trade.
The ACMA’s page on working as a registered cabler (opens in a new tab) says the rules protect the safety of cablers and customers, and the telecommunications network. In practice that means things like keeping communications cable apart from power, which is why a data cable and a power cable cannot simply share a pit or a pipe.
What can I do myself without a registered cabler?
You can connect equipment with ready-made leads, as long as no part of the lead is hidden inside a wall, floor or ceiling. The rules treat that as a simple, low-risk job anyone may do.
The ACMA explains it on its page about the declaration that sets out which cabling work is regulated (opens in a new tab). The items you may connect yourself are the ready-made ones: an equipment cord, a pre-terminated patch lead or patch cord, an adaptor cord, a telephone extension cord, a plug and socket adaptor. In a home that covers:
- Plugging the modem into the NBN box or the wall socket, with the lead it came with.
- A patch lead from the modem to the TV, the computer or a switch, run along the skirting or under a rug, not through the wall.
- Mesh units, a network switch or a games console, each plugged in with its own lead.
- A phone extension cord from the wall socket to another room, in the open.
Two more jobs are labour rather than cabling, and you can do them on your own land: digging a trench, and laying an empty pipe with a draw rope in it for the cable to go through later. Who owns the NBN lead-in sets out where that stops, at your boundary.
- Modem
- Patch leads
- TV
- Mesh unit
- Wall plate
- Cable in the wall
- Outside box
- Lead-in
- Pit
In the room
Ready-made leads and equipment, connected in the open. Yours to do.
Inside the wall
Any cable inside a wall, floor or ceiling, and every socket fitted to the wall, is work for a registered cabler.
Past the box
The lead-in from the street and the pit are NBN's network. A registered cabler cannot work on them: a cut or a fault goes to your provider.
Ready-made leads and stick-on clips are the do-it-yourself kit: nothing goes inside a wall and nothing gets terminated.
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| UGREEN flat Cat6, 10 m | Under a rug or along a skirting | View on Amazon for the UGREEN flat Cat6, 10 m (opens in a new tab) |
| UGREEN Cat6 lead, 5 m | A room-length run | View on Amazon for the UGREEN Cat6 lead, 5 m (opens in a new tab) |
| Stick-on cable clips | Holds a lead neatly, no drilling | View on Amazon for the Stick-on cable clips (opens in a new tab) |
What needs a registered cabler?
Anything that goes into the building, and anything with a socket on the end that you did not buy ready-made. The moment any part of a cable is inside a wall, floor or ceiling cavity, the job needs a registered cabler, or someone working under one’s direct supervision.
| The job | Who can do it |
|---|---|
| Plugging the modem into the NBN box or wall socket | You |
| A ready-made patch lead along the skirting to the TV or a switch | You |
| Plugging in mesh units, a switch or a console | You |
| Digging a trench, or laying an empty pipe with a draw rope | You, on your own land |
| Running data cable inside a wall, ceiling or under the floor | A registered cabler |
| Fitting a data point or phone socket on the wall | A registered cabler |
| Moving, adding or replacing a wall socket | A registered cabler |
| Joining or re-terminating a cut cable inside the house | A registered cabler |
| Using an Ethernet over coax adapter on the old TV cabling | A registered cabler |
| Repairing NBN's lead-in from the street, or its pit | NBN, booked through your provider |
The adapter row surprises people. Plugging an Ethernet over coax adapter into the old TV points turns that cabling into network cabling, and the ACMA says that re-purposing is regulated work.
The last row is a different kind of limit. The ACMA says a registered cabler cannot perform or supervise cabling work owned by a carrier or by NBN, so a cut or failed lead-in goes to your provider, not to a cabler. Most of moving the NBN box is on your side: the inside box, the lead to it and the cable to the router. Moving the box on the outside wall is the one version that needs NBN’s lead reordered.
Can I run the cable myself and get a cabler to terminate it?
Only if the registered cabler is supervising you while you do it and takes full responsibility for the work. That is what the rules allow: an unregistered person may do cabling work while a registered cabler supervises them at all times.
A cabler who turns up afterwards to fit sockets to cable someone else ran was not supervising it, and cannot vouch for what is inside the wall: how the cable was run, what it was fixed to, or what it runs beside.
What you can usefully do yourself is the work around the cable: clear a path under the house, move the furniture, dig the trench to the shed.
What is the difference between open and restricted registration?
Open registration covers all cabling work. Restricted registration covers simpler work in homes and small businesses, and stops short of a building’s main frame and patch panels.
From the ACMA’s page on the categories of cabling registration (opens in a new tab):
- Open: homes, businesses and large commercial buildings, where the cabling connects at a socket, a building’s distribution frame or the NBN box. With the right competencies it includes structured, optical fibre, coaxial, aerial and underground cabling.
- Restricted: homes, small businesses, and cabling that sits behind a device such as a modem or an alarm panel. It does not allow work through a building’s jumpering frame or a patch panel, and it rules out cables that share a sheath with other services.
- Lift: the communications cabling in lifts and lift wells.
For a house, either kind can run data points. The difference shows up in apartment blocks and offices, where the line comes through the building’s main frame, the MDF: that is open work, and it is what MDF jumpering involves. Fibre and coax also need their own competencies on top of the registration, so ask about those if your job involves either.
Our credential is Open Registered Cabler 10089.
Can my electrician run data cable?
Yes, if they also hold a cabling registration. An electrical licence on its own does not cover telecommunications cabling; the ACMA says an electrician who wants to do it needs a restricted or open cabling registration.
Plenty of electricians hold both, and when people ring us from too far away we often tell them to find a local electrician with a communications registration. It is not automatic, though. Telecommunications is a different field, and some electricians do far more of it than others. Three things are worth asking:
- Ask to see the cabling registration card, not the electrical licence. The ACMA says a registered cabler will show you theirs.
- Ask whether each point will be tested before they leave. When we are called to new data points that do not work, we often find a socket fitted off with the pairs in the wrong places and never tested.
- Ask about fibre or coax if the job involves either. They need their own competency.
The electrician is also the right person for the parts that are electrical, such as a power point for the modem in the garage.
How do I check a cabler is registered?
Ask to see their registration card, then check it with the registrar that issued it. The ACMA’s page on finding a registered cabler (opens in a new tab) lists the four registrars and shows how to tell from the card which one issued it.
Each registrar has its own way to check a registration, and the ACMA points to the Australian Registered Cablers website for finding one near you. It does not recommend individual cablers.
When do you need a cabler, and when don’t you?
You do not need one to plug things in. If the problem is WiFi that does not reach, mesh units or a patch lead along the skirting are yours to do, and setting up a wired network at home walks through what is possible before anything goes in a wall. Adding ports with a switch is plug-in work too: a network switch or a router explains the difference.
You do need one the moment the cable goes into the building:
- Data points in the rooms you use, with the cable inside the walls, is data cabling. The data cabling estimator gives a first idea of the job from your answers.
- The run from the NBN box to the modem and the rooms, on a new connection or an upgrade, is NBN cabling.
- A phone or NBN wall socket moved, added or replaced is NBN wall socket installation.
Not sure which side of the line your job is on? Send us a message with a photo of what you are looking at, or ring 02 9188 1577, and we will tell you whether it is a job for you or for us.
Frequently asked questions
Can I install my own data points?
No. Running data cable inside a wall, ceiling or floor and fitting the socket on the wall is cabling work, and in Australia it must be done by a registered cabler or under one's direct supervision. What you can do yourself is connect equipment with ready-made leads, such as a patch lead from the modem to a TV, as long as no part of the lead is hidden inside the building.
Can an electrician do data cabling?
Only if they also hold a cabling registration. An electrical licence covers power work; telecommunications cabling needs its own registration, open or restricted, and the ACMA says electricians need one to do it. Plenty of electricians hold both. Ask to see the cabling registration card before the job starts, and ask for each data point to be tested.
What is the difference between open and restricted cabling registration?
Open registration covers all cabling work, from a house to a multi-storey commercial building, including work at a building's main frame or patch panel. Restricted registration is for homes and small businesses where the cabling sits behind a simple socket or device, and it does not allow work through a building's frame or patch panel. Either can run data points in a house.
Need this fixed rather than explained?
This is written from the field. When the fault needs a technician on site, this is where to go next.