Should we use fibre or Cat6A?

Fibre for anything beyond 90 metres of fixed cable, for links between buildings or floors, for routes near heavy electrical interference and for backbone links carrying aggregated traffic. Cat6A for horizontal runs to desks, access points and cameras within the distance limit, particularly where Power over Ethernet is needed, because fibre cannot power a device.

What is the difference between single mode and multimode?

Multimode, typically OM3 or OM4, uses a larger core with cheaper optics and suits links inside a building or across a site, reaching roughly 300 to 400 metres at 10 Gigabit. Single mode uses a much smaller core, costs slightly more to terminate and runs over kilometres, with an upgrade path that mostly involves changing transceivers rather than cable. Longer runs, inter-building links and anything you want to future proof point towards single mode.

Do you carry out fusion splicing?

Yes. Splicing and termination are done by our own engineers, including joining external cable to internal cable at building entry, splicing into enclosures and trays, and repairing damaged runs without replacing a full length.

Is OTDR testing included?

Yes on backbone, external, inter-building and spliced links, where a trace is the only way to see the loss at each joint and locate a future fault quickly. Every run also gets insertion loss testing as standard. Both sets of results are handed over as part of the documentation pack.

Can you run fibre between two buildings on our site?

Yes. The survey establishes whether an existing duct is available and clear, or whether new ducting, direct buried armoured cable or another route is required, and what ground works and permissions that involves. External grade cable is specified for the conditions on the route.

Can you locate a fault on an existing fibre link?

Yes. An OTDR trace locates a break, a crush or a failing splice to within a short distance along the run, so the repair is targeted rather than exploratory. Where an installation baseline exists, comparing traces shows exactly what has changed.

Do you upgrade existing fibre backbones?

Yes. Many sites are working on a backbone that was correct when installed but has since become the hidden ceiling on the site's performance. Where that is the case, we upgrade it to carry what the business now needs, without unnecessarily ripping out cabling that still works.

Is testing and certification included?

Yes. Every run is tested and certified as standard. The results form part of your handover documentation, giving your team evidence the infrastructure meets standard for warranties, audits or whoever supports the network next.

Can fibre installation happen without disrupting our site?

In most cases, yes. Work is regularly delivered in live environments, using phased and out of hours access as needed. This is agreed at survey stage, so disruption is planned around your operation.

Do you work across multiple sites?

Yes. For multi-site operators, standards can be aligned across every location, so fibre, cabinets, labelling and documentation stay consistent, making an estate simpler to support and quicker to expand.

Across Northern Ireland and into the Republic of Ireland, from our base in Craigavon, with Belfast, Lisburn, Portadown, Derry and Bangor among the priority locations.

Commercial Fibre Installs Across Northern Ireland

Fibre installation is the backbone that everything else on your network depends on. When it is planned properly, Wi-Fi, switching, CCTV and every device connected to it can perform the way it should. When it is not, every system built on top of it inherits the same limitations.

Intouch designs and delivers commercial fibre installation across Northern Ireland and the wider island of Ireland, working from our base in Craigavon. Every project is planned, terminated, tested and documented to a standard built on 30 years of experience in healthcare, education and government facilities, where reliability is not negotiable. This work sits alongside our wider structured cabling and fibre services, which covers Cat6 and Cat6A alongside fibre where a site needs both.

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What Our Fibre Installation Service Covers

A fibre project is rarely just about running cable from one point to another. It needs to account for current demand and future growth, and it needs to be proven once it is in. Our work includes:

Fibre backbone installation, OM3/OM4 and single mode where required
Inter-floor and inter-building links, internal and external
Termination, splicing and patching to commercial standards
Containment and routing designed for commercial environments
Full testing and certification of every run, including OTDR on backbone links, included as standard and not charged as an extra
Backbone upgrades for increased bandwidth
Infrastructure planned with headroom for future growth

Older fibre backbones are often the hidden ceiling on a site's performance. Where an estate has outgrown its original install, we upgrade the backbone so the network can carry what the business now asks of it, without ripping out cabling that still works.

Where a site also needs copper cabling or enterprise Wi-Fi, fibre is planned as part of the same network installation project rather than as an isolated job.

When Fibre Replaces Copper, and When Copper Still Wins

The decision is usually made by distance, and after that by interference, bandwidth and how long the link has to last.

Distance settles most of it

Copper is limited to 90 metres of fixed cable, giving a 100 metre channel once patch leads are included. Beyond that, performance is not a matter of degree; the standard simply is not met. Fibre carries 10 Gigabit to around 300 metres on OM3 and around 400 metres on OM4, and single mode runs over kilometres. Any link between buildings, across a large warehouse floor, or between distant ends of a long building is a fibre link by default.

Bandwidth headroom is the third

A backbone aggregates everything sitting beneath it, so it needs to carry the combined load of every access point, camera and device on that floor or in that building, plus whatever gets added over the next decade. Single mode in particular is limited far more by the transceivers fitted at each end than by the cable, so upgrading a single mode link years later is often a matter of changing optics rather than pulling cable.

Interference is the second factor

Fibre carries light rather than current, so it is unaffected by electromagnetic interference. On manufacturing floors, near motors, welders, variable speed drives and heavy plant, and in any route that has to run close to power cabling, that immunity removes a whole category of intermittent fault before it can happen.

Copper still wins at the edge

For horizontal runs to desks, access points, cameras and devices inside the distance limit, Cat6A is cheaper to install, cheaper to terminate and supports Power over Ethernet, which fibre cannot. Powering an access point or a camera over the same cable that carries its data is why almost every site ends up with fibre in the backbone and copper at the edge. Our structured cabling page covers that side of the specification.

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Inter-building and Inter-floor Fibre Runs

Backbone work divides into two jobs with quite different constraints.

Inter-floor runs travel through risers, service voids and cores. The technical part is straightforward; the practical part is not. Riser space in older Belfast and Northern Ireland commercial buildings is frequently congested and shared with services that cannot be disturbed. Routes have to be agreed with the building owner or managing agent, penetrations have to be made and made good properly, and fire stopping has to be reinstated where a run passes through a compartment line. On multi-tenant sites, cabinet positions on each floor drive the design, since every floor's copper has to reach its own cabinet within the 90 metre limit.

Inter-building runs leave the building envelope, which changes the cable and the method. Options are typically:

Existing ducts, where they exist and are clear, which is always the first thing the survey checks
New ducting, directionally drilled or trenched where an established route is not available
Direct buried armoured cable where the ground conditions and future works make it the sensible choice
External grade and armoured cable specified for moisture, rodent and mechanical protection
Catenary or overhead routes where a site's layout makes a ground route impractical

External work brings coordination that internal work does not: ground works, permissions, existing services, reinstatement and, on live sites, keeping vehicle and pedestrian routes open. That is planned at survey stage rather than discovered on the day, which is a large part of why we do not quote fibre without seeing the route.

Termination and Splicing

How a fibre link is joined and terminated determines its loss budget, and the loss budget determines whether it works.

Fusion splicing joins two fibres by fusing the glass cores together, giving very low loss and high reliability. It is the standard method for joining backbone cable to pigtails inside a splice enclosure or tray, for joining external cable to internal cable at a building entry point, and for repairing a damaged run without replacing the whole length.

Pre-terminated assemblies arrive with connectors factory fitted and tested. Where the route length can be established accurately at survey, they cut installation time considerably and remove field termination variability. They are less forgiving of a route that changes on site, which is the trade off.

Mechanical splicing aligns and clamps the fibres rather than fusing them. Loss is higher and the joint is less durable, so it has a place in emergency restoration and temporary work rather than in a permanent backbone.

Field termination and breakout covers the enclosure or panel end: splice trays, patch panels, pigtails and connectors, typically LC or SC on commercial work, with breakout from a multi-core backbone into individual duplex ports. Bend radius, strain relief and cable management inside the enclosure are not cosmetic details here. They are the difference between a link that holds its loss figures and one that drifts.

Whichever method suits the site, every joint and connector is a loss event that has to be measured, which is where testing comes in.

Longer Runs and High Density Sites

Two situations push a site beyond a straightforward backbone link.

Long runs appear on large single storey buildings, spread out industrial estates, campuses and multi-building sites. Once a link is measured in hundreds of metres, single mode usually becomes the sensible specification even where multimode would technically reach, because the cost difference sits in the transceivers rather than the cable and single mode leaves the upgrade path open. Where a route may serve additional buildings or cabinets later, running a higher core count on the first pull costs a fraction of returning to install a second cable.

High density sites are the other case: comms rooms and data halls aggregating many cabinets, sites with multiple distribution cabinets per floor, and buildings where a large number of access points, cameras and connected systems all converge on the same aggregation point. Here the design questions are core count, cabinet to cabinet linking, panel density and cable management inside the enclosure. Getting core count and panel space right at design stage is what keeps a high density room workable, because in a congested comms room the cost of adding capacity later is mostly the cost of working around what is already there.

Both cases are why backbone strand counts are specified with headroom as standard rather than sized to the current requirement.

Who Needs Fibre Installation

Fibre matters most where a site cannot tolerate a slow or unreliable network, and our industries page sets out what each sector asks of the physical layer. Typical clients include:

Warehousing and logistics operations
Manufacturing and production facilities, where a network fault means the whole shift stops
Multi-site operators, including retail chains and private healthcare sites, standardising on one specification across every location
Multi-building sites and campuses needing links between separate structures
Managed office and commercial property providers
MSPs, IT providers and electrical contractors who need a physical infrastructure partner for the fibre element of a wider project

If you fall into that last group, our who we work with page explains how Intouch fits in as a delivery partner rather than a competitor, and our MSPs and IT providers page goes into more detail on that relationship.

How a Fibre Installation Project Runs

Every project begins with a structured site survey to define the scope before anything is quoted. This is not a quote based on guesswork. The survey confirms current cabling, comms cabinet locations, the route the fibre has to take and the type of fibre the site needs.

Containment and routing are agreed before work begins, particularly in live environments where disruption has to be managed around an operating business. Intouch regularly works in live environments, using phased installations and out of hours work where a site cannot stop.

Once installed, every run is tested and certified, with OTDR traces on backbone links, and examples of completed projects are on our case studies page. Those results are handed over as part of a documented pack your team can rely on for warranties, audits or whoever supports the network next. This is the same standard behind our wider structured cabling installation work, so a fibre backbone and the copper cabling around it are documented to one consistent standard.

Fibre Installation in Belfast and Across Northern Ireland

Belfast is one of the priority Northern Ireland locations for fibre work, alongside Craigavon, Lisburn, Portadown, Derry and Bangor. The same standard applies wherever the site is. Working from our base in Craigavon, we deliver fibre installation across Northern Ireland and into the Republic of Ireland, so multi-site organisations get one consistent standard regardless of location.