Costs may be derived from reference materials. R.S. Means publishes cost reference
materials in a square foot format and in a unit cost format. Their costs are updated
yearly based on construction projects. They include city and regional indexes for
both materials and labor. For items which R.S. Means does not provide information,
contact a distribution house like Anixter or Graybar. Black Box Corporation publishes
prices in their catalog and they also provide useful system diagrams.
The following is an outline of the items needed to budget a communications
facility and also serves as a list of items to consider during planning.
1. Outside plant infrastructures:
a. Ductbanks: PVC encased in concrete is suggested. Include excavation, bed
preparation, back fill, compaction, seeding, patching sidewalks and drives.
Include innerduct in all fiberoptic ducts.
b. Manholes and handholes: Include excavation, bed preparation, backfill, compaction,
seeding, patching sidewalks and drives. Include ground rods for
copper cables and metal strength members where required.
c. Pole work.
d. Right of way costs.
2. Main communications room infrastructure:
a. Square foot cost of base-rated room, fire-rated construction.
b. Heating and air conditioning: Include humidification where needed. Include
controls and monitoring. Anywhere from 2 to 5 tons of cooling is typical.
c. Electric panel: 200-amp main breaker, 120/208 V, three-phase, four-wire,
42-pole is typical. Note that some installations require 240 V, in which case,
a 120/240 V, single-phase panel is required. It may be necessary to provide
two panels. Include transformers, shielded type, where required.
d. Backup power. Some design will be required here. Any or none of the following
may be required: generator, large floor-mounted UPS, rack-mounted
UPSs, batteries for UPSs. Include systems monitoring.
e. Lighting: fluorescent fixtures with 100% solid-state ballasts.
f. Grounding: master ground bar with stand-off isolators; dedicated ground rod,
bonding to steel, bonding to electrical service; grounding of cable tray, racks,
and power backup system; grounding of PETs.
g. Cable tray.
h. Fire-rated plywood.
i. Fire-stopping for tray penetrations and sleeves.
j. Racks with cable managers and power strips.
k. Smoke detectors.
l. Emergency-power-off station, with circuiting where required by Code.
m. Maintenance receptacles on each wall.
n. Backup power wiring to racks and equipment, twist-lock receptacles or hard
wired.
o. Security, electric door locks with key bypass, card reader, magnetic door
switch.
3. Building backbone, riser, or campus backbone infrastructure:
a. Cable tray: Include partitions, innerduct protection for fibers, where required,
and full length ground cable with connectors to each tray section and to
each closet or room.
b. Conduit, sleeves, and pull boxes. Include extra pull boxes since the communications
industry uses a pull box for each 180 of conduit bend, as
opposed to the power cable installers who use a pull box for each 360 of
conduit bend.
c. Fire-stopping for tray penetrations and sleeves.
4. Communications closet infrastructure:
a. Square foot cost of base-rated room, fire-rated construction.
b. Heating and air conditioning: Include humidification where needed. Include
controls and monitoring. Anywhere from 2 to 5 tons of cooling is typical.
c. Electric panel: 200-amp main breaker, 120/208 V, three-phase, four-wire,
42-pole is typical. Note that some installations require 240 V, in which case,
a 120/240 V, single-phase panel is required. It may be necessary to provide
two panels. Include transformers, shielded type, where required.
d. Backup power. Some design will be required here. Any or none of the following
may be required: generator, large floor-mounted UPS, rack-mounted
UPSs, batteries for UPSs. Include systems monitoring.
e. Lighting: fluorescent fixtures with 100% solid-state ballasts.
f. Grounding: ground bar with stand-off isolators, bonding to steel, bonding to
electrical service; grounding of cable tray, racks, and power backup system.
g. Cable tray.
h. Fire-rated plywood.
i. Fire-stopping for tray penetrations and sleeves.
j. Racks with cable managers and power strips.
k. Smoke detectors.
l. Emergency-power-off station, with circuiting where required by Code.
m. Maintenance receptacles on each wall.
n. Backup power wiring to racks and equipment, twist-lock receptacles or hard
wired.
o. Security, electric door locks with key bypass, card reader, magnetic door
switch.
5. Outside plant cable:
a. Single-mode fiberoptic cable, non-LEC cable.
b. Multimode fiberoptic cable, non-LEC cable.
c. Copper cable, non-LEC cable.
d. Terminations. Note that if gel-filled cables are used, extra terminations may
be necessary to meet fire codes which require that gel-filled cables must
terminate within 50 ft of entering a building.
e. Fiber testing, OTDR.
f. Copper testing, electronic cable tester.
6. Main communications room cable and equipment:
a. Fiberoptic entrance facility.
b. Protected-entrance terminals, PETs.
c. Punch-down blocks.
d. Cross connects.
e. PBX, own, lease, or none.
f. PBX rectifier system, batteries.
g. Special equipment, channel banks, smart jacks, ISDN punch-down blocks,
modems.
h. Patch panels and wire managers.
i. Fiberoptic splice trays.
j. Fiberoptic patch panels.
k. Any special arrangements for LEC and CLEC equipment.
l. Network gear, switches, hubs, bridges, routers, gateways, servers, media converters,
wireless gear.
m. Special cable with connectors and panels and patches, coax, T1, T1C, telco
cable.
n. Patch cords designed for the system.
o. Fiber testing, OTDR.
p. Copper testing, electronic cable tester.
q. Equipment testing.
r. Backup power systems, if not provided with infrastructure.
7. Building backbone or riser cable:
a. High-pair count copper voice cable, plenum-rated as required; riser- and firerated
as required.
b. Fiberoptic cable: single-mode, multimode, or hybrid; plenum rated as required.
c. Special cables, T1, T1C, coax; plenum rated as required.
d. Terminations.
e. Fiber testing, OTDR.
f. Copper testing, electronic cable tester.
8. Communications closet cable and equipment:
a. Fiberoptic splice trays.
b. Fiberoptic patch panels.
c. Punch-down blocks.
d. Patch panels and wire managers.
e. Patch cables designed for the system.
f. Cross connects.
g. Distributed system PBX cabinet.
h. Backup power systems, if not provided with infrastructure.
i. Network gear, switches, hubs, bridges, routers, gateways, servers, media converters,
wireless gear.
j. Special cable with connectors and panels and patches, coax, T1, T1C, telco
cable.
k. Fiber testing, OTDR.
l. Copper testing, electronic cable tester.
m. Equipment testing.
9. Horizontal cabling:
a. Horizontal voice and data cable, CAT 5, CAT 5e, or CAT 6. An average of
175 ft per run is a rough estimate for office building use. Use plenum-rated
cable.
b. J-hooks, use one every 5 ft, based on a review of the plans.
c. Cable tray in halls, as required.
d. System furniture outlets and jacks.
e. Wall outlets and jacks.
f. Wall phone outlets and jacks.
g. ADA outlets.
h. Communications poles.
i. Network interface cards (NICs) in PCs.
j. Patch cables at PC.
k. Modems.
l. Printers.
m. Fiber testing, OTDR.
n. Copper testing, electronic cable tester.
o. Equipment testing.
p. Standard 15-year warranty testing.
Note that for a CAT 5e and CAT 6 solution, patch panels, horizontal cabling,
jacks, PC patch cables, and closet patch cables must be approved as a system. The
horizontal cabling effects the cost and design of the network. Note that a CAT 6
solution is presently considered to be less expensive than a CAT 5 or CAT 5e
solution for running gigabit speeds. The cost of the network equipment to compensate
for signal degradation is higher than the cost of CAT 6 cabling.
