A new company, London NW7-based Twisted Pair Technology Ltd, TPT, has entered the growing UK market for structured cabling, offering planning, development and installation of cable systems based on its own products and those from Cabletron Systems, and the UK arm of Fibronics International. Structured cabling involves the initially costly exercise of flood-wiring the horizontal of a building with grids of cabling from day one of its furbishment in such a way as to cater for any future cabling requirements; the idea is that from then on any changes that need to be made to the user’s voice and data network – for example, the addition or repositioning of terminals – can be carried out at significantly less expense than with systems that have grown in the haphazard way that normally occurs. TPT, which will be competing with the likes of BICC Information Systems, Case Cabling, and ICL IT Services – all relatively new divisions set up to exploit this market – is supplying a range of products under the MCA Modular Cable Architecture trade name. Included within the MCA range is the MCA Active Starwiring Concentrator for IBM AS/400 and System 36 and 38 installations in networks with runs of up to 5,000 feet; the Passive Starwiring Concentrator, configured with one to four or four to eight ports, each port supporting up to seven machines; the Fibronics Unimux FM 892, a 69Mbps fibre-optic multiplexer linking the fibre-optic backbone to Ethernet and token ring local nets; various devices allowing 4Mbps or 16Mbps token ring to run over unshielded twisted pair at distances of up to 1,000 feet; and the Cabletron Multi Media Access Centre for linking unshielded twisted pair, fibre-optics, thin and thick wire Ethernet and the IBM cabling system over local and wide area networks. In addition to these and other communication products, TPT also provides its Tracer cabling management software, which lists all network terminals and displays how they are linked. But sales and marketing director Alex Igel is eager to stress that it is in the area of services that Twisted Pair sees its competitive edge. Apart from carrying out audits on a company’s cabling requirements, it will put customers into contact with voice and data network consultancies, which will give an independent analysis of present and future needs. TPT will be marketing its products and services directly and through value-added resellers; cable system leasing and rental agreements will also be negotiable, normally over three to five year periods.
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