Riser and inter-building backbone cabling in copper and fiber.
Free, no-obligation walkthrough. Licensed C-10 / C-7 (CSLB #992009). 28+ years, California & nationwide.
Backbone Cabling from Access Cabling delivers enterprise-grade backbone cabling engineered by a licensed low-voltage contractor with 28+ years serving California and nationwide clients. Our BICSI-trained technicians design, install, terminate, test and certify every run to TIA/EIA standards so your infrastructure supports current bandwidth demands and future growth.
Commercial-grade installation, certified performance, and infrastructure built to last 25+ years.
A repeatable, engineered process — refined over 28 years and thousands of sites.
Free on-site survey and needs assessment
Engineered design with rack elevations and pathway plans
Scheduled installation with minimal business disruption
Termination, testing, labeling and documentation
Fluke certification and as-built drawings delivered
Every backbone cabling follows TIA-568, TIA-606 labeling, NEC 800 and applicable manufacturer specifications. Fluke DSX Versiv certification and full as-built documentation are delivered at project close.
Local crews dispatched daily from five California offices. Multi-site rollouts across all 50 states.
Jump straight to the backbone cabling page for your market — each city page lists the local office, phone number and recent projects.
Commercial backbone cabling across California and nationwide — single-mode and multimode fiber risers, copper voice backbones, campus inter-building runs, and MDF-to-IDF trunks. Access Cabling designs the topology to TIA-568/942 hierarchical star, pulls cable in riser and plenum-rated construction, fusion-splices and certifies every strand, and delivers full documentation. Licensed C-10/C-7 (CSLB #992009), 28+ years, BICSI-trained crews.
In TIA-568 terminology the backbone is everything connecting your MDF (main distribution frame) to your IDF (intermediate distribution frame) closets — vertically between floors, horizontally across a floor plate, or between buildings on a campus. Horizontal cabling (the drops to outlets) is separate. A good backbone is over-provisioned, single-mode where possible, testable, and documented — because pulling it a second time is expensive.
Standard practice: 12-24 strand OS2 single-mode from MDF to each IDF for inside-plant, 48-144 strand for campus and multi-tenant buildings, plus 6-12 strands of OM4 multimode if legacy MM optics are still in use. Copper backbones (Cat 3 or Cat 6 25-pair) survive only in voice-only plants; new voice runs on VoIP over the data backbone.
Vertical risers run in dedicated fire-rated shafts with sleeved penetrations firestopped per NEC 300.21 and 800.113. Horizontal backbone runs live in cable tray, ladder rack, or J-hooks above accessible ceilings — never zip-tied to conduit or sprinkler pipe. Campus runs use conduit, innerduct, direct-bury, or aerial with proper slack loops at each building entry.
Every single-mode strand is fusion-spliced to a factory pigtail in the MDF and each IDF for sub-0.05 dB splice loss. Panels are Corning CCH or Panduit Opticom with LC-duplex or MTP-24 assemblies depending on switch density. Multimode is typically LC-duplex on OM4 pigtails, or MTP-12 pre-terminated trunks for high-density.
Full Tier 1 (dual-wavelength loss) plus Tier 2 (bidirectional OTDR) certification on every strand, with connector inspection photos and bound PDF report. Qualifies for 25-year Corning, CommScope, or Panduit system and application-assurance warranties.
Share your scope — square footage, drop or device count, and timeline — and a senior estimator returns a written, itemized proposal within 48 hours. Free site survey, no obligation.
Vendor-agnostic. We specify best-in-class components for each project — copper, fiber, racks, power, wireless and access control from the industry's leading manufacturers.
Read our guide to the cabling brands behind the world's data centers
Brand references reflect products Access Cabling has installed on commercial projects. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For inside-plant MDF-to-IDF backbones we recommend a 24-strand OS2 single-mode minimum (typically 4-6 in immediate use), so you have 3-5x future capacity. Campus and multi-tenant buildings step up to 48-144 strands. Rule: install more than you think you need — the incremental cost is small.
Single-mode as the primary; add 6-12 strands of OM4 multimode only if you have installed multimode optics you're keeping or short high-speed data-center reaches where VCSEL saves enough on transceivers to matter. New backbones are single-mode.
Highly dependent on pathway complexity. A straightforward 24-strand OS2 riser between two floors with accessible pathway runs a few thousand dollars per riser. Campus runs with trenching, boring, or aerial add materially and are quoted after a site walk.
Yes. Riser pulls typically happen after-hours or on weekends to minimize elevator/stairwell disruption. IDF and MDF splicing is coordinated with your NOC. Full cutover of any live uplink happens in a short scheduled window with the new fiber pre-tested.
Every penetration is sealed with a UL-listed intumescent firestop system (3M or Hilti) matching the wall/floor rating and the cable jacket type. We photograph and label every penetration in the closeout package for AHJ inspection.
Yes. We splice into existing splice cases or panels, extend cable to a new closet, and recertify the full link. Common on TI and floor-expansion projects.
As-built riser drawings, fiber schematic showing every strand and its termination, patch-panel port maps, Tier 1 and Tier 2 test reports, connector inspection photos, firestop records, and warranty registration.
Yes. Copper 25-pair backbones for voice are still occasionally installed in schools, government, and older commercial buildings. New designs consolidate voice onto VoIP over the fiber and data backbone.
Backbone Cabling pricing depends on drop count, cable type, pathway complexity, and building conditions. Most commercial projects range from $150 to $350 per drop installed. Request a free site survey for an itemized quote.
Yes. Access Cabling is headquartered in California with a nationwide technician network for multi-site rollouts across all 50 states.
Every installation is Fluke-tested and certified. Structured cabling installs carry manufacturer warranties of up to 25 years through our Panduit, CommScope, Leviton and Belden partner relationships.
Single-mode and multimode fiber installation, termination and testing.
Emergency fiber optic repair, splicing and restoration 24/7.
Mechanical and fusion fiber splicing with OTDR verification.
Fusion splicing services with sub-0.05 dB average loss.
OTDR, insertion loss and end-face inspection for every strand.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 fiber certification with full documentation.
28 years, thousands of sites, one accountable contractor. Get a free site survey and an itemized quote in 48 hours.
