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As homes become increasingly reliant on being connected, ensuring your internet cabling remains intact and operational at all times is more important than ever. While overhead internet cabling is often found in established suburbs and rural areas, increasingly the shift has been towards underground cables, especially in urban and populated areas, to improve aesthetics and reduce the risk of damage and outages.
In most new developments in urban areas across Australia, all wiring, including telecommunications cables and infrastructure, are now being located underground. But the question for homeowners and builders is, if you have existing cabling that needs updating or are working on a development, subdivision or knockdown rebuild where existing overhead cabling is in place, is it worth moving it underground?
There are clear benefits to underground cabling versus overheads, so it is worth doing some research to see if the added cost of moving underground is a good choice for your project. So, to help you get started, in this article we discuss three reasons why underground internet cabling beats overheads.
1) Reduce the risk of damage
Many homeowners and tenants have experienced firsthand the inconvenience of telecommunications outages caused by overhead wires being damaged or brought down. Weather events such as storms and high winds pose a significant risk, particularly if there are trees in close proximity to the cables. Even a relatively small branch falling on wires has the potential to cause damage to overheads, as does interference from other sources, including wildlife, vehicles and vandalism. On the other hand, when cables are located underground, the risk of damage occurring from external factors is highly unlikely, as they are well protected from the elements and other common interferences.
2) Improve the street appeal
There’s no doubt that overhead wiring is unsightly, and in cities the multitude of wires coming from houses and apartments can look cluttered, and even block the views. When wiring and cables are located underground, this is no longer an issue. Without overheads, the outlook is opened up, which greatly improves the visual appearance of your home and enhances the look and feel of your surroundings.
3) Minimise the risk of outages
With the huge shift to work from home arrangements for many, along with an increase in smart home technology, social media use and of course Netflix, any interruption to your internet service is now more than an annoyance. We have come to rely on the internet in the same way we rely on electricity, which means any downtime can cause stress and impact your ability to work and communicate effectively. As mentioned above, placing the cabling underground significantly reduces the risk of storm, tree or wind damage—which in turn, leads to far less outages. Although it is hard to measure and predict when an outage will occur, it’s safe to say that when your internet cabling is located underground the number of outages is likely to be far lower.
Underground cabling is the future
While it’s not feasible or possible to replace all overhead internet cabling immediately, it’s clear that underground cabling is the way of the future. If you have an opportunity to switch your overhead cables underground without causing disruption to the occupants, it is well worth considering. That way, not only will you have the best infrastructure and cabling to deliver optimum performance for your home’s technology and communication requirements, you’ll also enjoy a nicer outlook and less chance of damage.
If you are considering relocating your existing cabling, for example, for a knockdown rebuild project, MCS Connect can assist. Get in touch with our team on 03 8592 8100 to enquire about moving your overhead telecommunications cabling underground today.
