Structured cabling is priced by the drop, and published 2026 ranges run $150 to $350+ each installed. Here is what a drop actually includes, why two quotes for the same office can be $2,000 apart, and how to read yours.
Published July 16, 2026 • Synergy Telecom & Medical Systems, Rome GA
A drop is one complete cable run: from the network closet, through walls or ceiling, to a jack at a desk, camera, access point, or printer location. Quotes count drops, so an office with 12 desks and 4 ceiling devices is roughly a 16-drop job before spares.
Published national ranges put an installed Cat6 drop at $150 to $350+ in 2026. A typical 10-drop small office therefore lands somewhere between $1,500 and $3,500+, which matches what we see quoted around Northwest Georgia. Where a specific building falls in that band comes down to the variables below.
A complete drop is more than cable in a wall. A proper quote covers:
If a low quote is silent on labeling and test reports, that is usually where the savings came from, and it is exactly the documentation the next technician (or the next buyer of your building) will wish existed.
The same drop count can price very differently depending on the building and the spec.
Around Rome and the older commercial buildings of Northwest Georgia, retrofit labor is the swing factor. Plaster, masonry, and decades of previous wiring can add real hours, while a new buildout with open ceilings installs fast. This is why a walkthrough beats a phone estimate every time.
Cat6 handles gigabit comfortably and is the right default for most offices. Cat6a costs more per drop but carries 10 gigabit and more Power over Ethernet headroom for dense camera and wireless deployments.
Fiber enters the conversation for building-to-building links and backbone runs. If your project includes cameras or access points, plan those drops now: PoE devices ride the same cabling, and adding them later costs more than pulling extra runs today. See our network infrastructure and physical security pages for how those pieces fit together.
The expensive cabling problems we see are rarely about the cable.
Unlabeled runs mean every future change starts with an hour of tracing. Skipped test reports hide marginal runs that surface as mystery network problems. Ordering exactly as many drops as today's headcount guarantees a second mobilization fee when you hire. And daisy-chaining small switches around the office instead of home-running drops to the closet works right up until it does not. A little over-provisioning now is the cheap version of all four.
Cabling is the layer everything else rides on: internet handoff, VoIP phone systems, wireless, cameras, and printers all terminate on those same drops.
Because we scope cabling alongside connectivity and phones rather than as a standalone trade, the drop map matches what the office will actually run, not just where the desks sit today.
Are these Synergy Telecom prices? They are published 2026 market ranges rather than our rate card. Cabling in particular is building-specific, so we quote after a walkthrough. The ranges are here so you can spot a quote that is far outside normal in either direction.
How many drops does an office need? A common rule of thumb is two drops per workstation plus runs for printers, cameras, access points, and TVs, then a few spares. Counting only desks is the most common way offices end up short a year later.
Does the cabling price include network equipment? No. Switches, routers, firewalls, and wireless access points are quoted separately from the cabling itself. A drop gets the jack live to the patch panel; the electronics that light it up are their own line.
Can we reuse the cabling already in the building? Sometimes. Existing Cat5e that tests clean still carries gigabit for most office needs. The honest answer comes from testing the runs rather than guessing by age, and testing existing cable is far cheaper than replacing it on principle.
Planning a buildout or a move? Contact us for a walkthrough and a drop map that matches how your office will really run.
Published installed-Cat6 ranges. Building condition is the swing factor.
Related reading: Business internet options • Phone system costs