what are the licensing requirements in NY/NJ?

In NJ you'd need a low voltage exemption issued by the Electrical Contractors board. I'm not sure about NY as we don't go that far north ;-). However, you'll be able to check with BICSI on that. On their website

there is a member-only section that has "Government Regulations" subsection. You'll go there, select NY and get all the info about licensing (or lack thereof), codes and even version of NEC for field use in the state. I presume you are already a member or at least becoming one some time soon as for the RCDD you need to be a BICSI member. It is really up to the contractor to decide if they want to handle networking equipment and cabling or just one of the two. It is, however, more often that cabling is handled by a separate specialized contractor, especially considering Union issues you'll have to deal with in both states you are interested in.

Sincerely,

Thanks. I was really wondering where the division is between electrical contractors(ie high voltage) and network work (ie low voltage). In construction in general, a sub will quote on a blueprint taking in all the work for their trade. I am wondering if the electrical contractor already quotes on all of the network cabling and design work. Surely the architect does not design the network!

------------------------------------- Dmitri(Cabl> wooliewillie wrote:

##-----------------------------------------------##

Article posted with Cabling-Design.com Newsgroup Archive

no-spam read and post WWW interface to your favorite newsgroup -

comp.dcom.cabling - 4577 messages and counting!

##-----------------------------------------------##

I have never heard of an electrical contractor doing (large) design work, but it is absolutely possible. Many of the "traditional" electrical contractors have low voltage cabling divisions, and most have enough brainpower/manpower to do it turnkey. On the other hand, installation of low voltage cables by electrical contractors is very common these days. It all depends on the actual situation, different alliances between contractors, how slow/busy they are at the moment, and, most importantly in Union areas, whether or not "traditional electrical" wages are higher than "low voltage electrical".

My company is a low voltage/telecommunication contractor, and about 50% of the work we do as a prime contractor and the other 50% as a sub to our partner electrical contractors of which some do not have telecom division and some just too busy elsewhere or don't have (enough) people familiar with fiber or CAT6.

Oh, BTW, an architect will have no problem designing your network. This is easily achieved by the architect hiring a specialized firm which becomes the network consultant on the job. Look at the low voltage cabling plans, most likely you'll see their name on the drawings.