However, I now stand corrected – one of our loyal customers and a long serving Cabler himself for many years (longer than myself) informed me of some interesting facts. The ACMA has no affiliation with any political party. I guess the timing is somewhat suspicious when looking at the current economic climate, It’s not hard to see the changes as just another money grabbing exercise. I thank him for his input. However the catalyst for these changes started with the NBN roll-out according to some ACMA literature. Good or Bad depending on your point of view.
When I obtained my license in the early 2000’s – there were 2 licenses classes – OPEN & RESTRICTED. Restricted licenses permitted you to install cable that was no more than 6 core (NO CAT5), whilst the OPEN license permitted you to cable all types. Restricted was OK for security installers connecting MODE 3 sockets with 6 or 4 core phone cable to customer’s phone lines and some CCTV Coax and Figure-8.
The new changes now require Cablers with an existing Open License without Endorsements to retrain and obtain the endorsements. Interestingly, Cabling License “Endorsements” were originally implemented but then removed and now re-implemented. The nett effect is another cost we have to bear, with little apparent gain.
You might be thinking, “Hey I have my Open License, had it for years and cable in Cat5/Cat6 & Coax everyday! I don’t need to go back and do it again.” Well, yes you do, or you will be limited to 6 core cable & figure-8 – according to an ACMA Brochure which accompanied my Open License renewal. ACMA has now effectively turned all of our OPEN licenses into RESTRICTED licenses with the stroke of a pen.
So, if you are a Cabler (which you are if you install CCTV or security products) you now need to go back to school to re-learn how to cable Cat5/Cat6, Coax & Fibre.
What does this all mean to the Cabler? The simple answer is, 5 days of your time re-training for what you already know and $1,000 down the toilet. After all, it’s not like anyone will miss a thousand dollars and loss of income for a week, right? We all make too much money anyway and would otherwise just go to the pub and drink it or go fishing. ACMA will have you believe that it is better for the industry by removing the cowboys, but my thoughts are, how will anyone ever know? Are they going to police it? Not actively I’ll bet.
Please, if you have any comments on this, we would love to hear them.
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