We buy surplus structured cabling

Structured cabling is the lightest material in a surplus program, and it is clean, labeled and easy to count. Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6A, plenum and riser rated, in 1,000 ft boxes, reels and the part-used boxes that come back from a fit-out. Patch cords and pre-terminated assemblies are welcome in the same lot.

Data cable is not read like power cable. There is little metal in a box of Cat6 compared with a reel of feeder, so the review is about category, rating and whether the box is sealed. That makes it fast: a photograph of the label usually settles a box in seconds.

Category, rating and what the label says

The category tells you the performance band: Cat5e, Cat6 or Cat6A. The rating tells you where it can run: CMP for plenum, CMR for riser, CM for general use. Both are printed on the box and repeated along the jacket, so identification is rarely a problem.

Plenum cable is the one worth keeping separate, because it carries a higher rating and a different jacket compound. A box of CMP mixed in with CMR is not ruined, but it is sorted. Keep the labels visible and the sorting takes care of itself.

Boxes, reels and part-used lengths

Most data cable arrives in a cardboard box with the cable on a spool inside, 1,000 ft to a box. Sealed boxes are the best material and need almost no review. Opened boxes are counted by what is left, which is estimated from the spool and confirmed by pulling a length.

Reels appear on larger fit-outs and on outside plant work. A part-used reel is read the same way as a part-used box: the remaining length is what counts. Writing the estimate on the box with a marker is a small thing that makes a whole pallet easier to review.

Patch cords and pre-terminated assemblies

Patch cords are short, terminated and usually bought by the sack rather than the piece. They are read on category, length mix and whether the boots and clips are intact. A sack of mixed Cat6 cords is a small item, but a thousand of them from a data hall fit-out is a lot.

Pre-terminated assemblies, trunk cables and cassette systems are read as complete units, because a terminated end is most of the value. If a run has been cut or a connector damaged, say so. An assembly with one bad end is a length of cable, not an assembly.

The data center build-out east of Austin along SH-130 and SH-71 generates structured cabling surplus in commercial quantities. A hall that changes design or a tenant that takes a different footprint leaves boxes and reels that were bought for the original layout, often still sealed.

Office fit-outs downtown and in the Domain and Round Rock areas produce the smaller version: part boxes, patch cords by the hundred, and the odds and ends from a move. Campus work at UT Austin and Texas State adds another steady trickle of the same material.