Automation Association Seeks Broadband Wiring For Homes by Broderick Perkins
If it's up to the Federal Communication Commission, your "smart" home could be a little, well, retarded. The Home Automation Association is lobbying the FCC to improve it's new minimum requirements for inside telephone wiring so home owners can pipe in all the broadband data they need. The FCC's new Order FCC 99-405, effective later this year, requires only Category 3 wiring quality standards for inside telephone wiring. Phone wiring systems that use Category 5 wiring offer the extra bandwidth necessary to pipe digital television signals and to efficiently run a "smart home". Smart homes contain electronic devices and "smart appliances" programmed to perform tasks automatically when they're triggered by motion, sound, time, touch or temperature cues. Creating a home with brains not only makes your home more efficient and productive, but also adds value when it's time to sell. Digital remodeling professionals, called electronic architects recommend Category 5 wiring. Your telephone service provider will be able to tell you if your home's wiring is at the Category 5 level. Category 5 moves voice and data at a minimum of 100 megabytes per second and supports local area networks (LANs), providing the ability to use a home printer from the kitchen laptop, for instance. It also serves as the data line for digital television. Category 3, on the other hand, offers speeds of up to only 10 megabytes per second. Installing Category 5 wiring in new construction costs pennies more than installing Category 3 wiring, but trying to retrofit the faster wires can be costly, depending upon the materials and the structure and design of your home. Fortunately, the FCC's order is merely a minimum standard and builders can install whatever the home buyer wants if the builder provides a Category 5 option. The association is concerned, however, that builders may skimp on wiring and force new home owners into a costly upgrade after they buy. "In the same way that railroads and interstate highways were developed to connect people and advance commerce, building America's electronic infrastructure, especially home wiring, enhances our economic well being, improves our ability to communicate and increases the safety and security of hour homes," says William Lane, chairman of the Home Automation Associations, Wiring America's Homes campaign. "This action by the FCC is a positive first step, however the FCC needs to upgrade the standards to Category 5, enabling home owners to make the most of new and emerging home automation and communications technologies," Lane added. If you need to upgrade your home's wiring service, be aware that Category 5 wiring, available at hardware or electronics retailers, pumps digitized data at maximum speeds only when it's part of a structured wired system. That is, outlets, ports or jacks must each receive a dedicated line back to the service box. Spliced, extended and otherwise shared lines siphon speed. | 
