How long does home network and TV cabling last

Home data cabling almost never dies of wear. Ethernet cabling lasts 15 to 25 years and indoor coaxial (TV and aerial) the same; only outdoor coax running to a dish or aerial cuts shorter, at 5 to 10. What ends a run is rarely the copper: it is a damaged connector, a cable nicked during other work, or a standard the household has moved past. The cost that matters is fishing a new cable through the wall, not the cable on the reel.

What each cable lasts

Cabling	Typical lifespan	What usually ends it
Ethernet (Cat 5e/6)	15–25 years	connector wear, physical damage, obsolescence
Coaxial (TV/aerial)	15–25 years	connector corrosion, shield degradation

These ranges come from cabling trade data and manufacturer specifications behind the planning model, held at medium-high confidence. Two things sit behind the single number. Indoor cable in a dry wall degrades very slowly, so the 15-to-25-year figure is really a proxy for how long a standard stays current rather than how long the copper lasts. Outdoor coax is the exception: a run from a satellite dish or rooftop aerial takes weather and UV directly and compresses to 5 to 10 years, mostly at its connectors. Coax as a whole is a declining clock, because households keep shifting television and internet onto fibre and ethernet.

What ends a cable is rarely the cable itself

A data cable in a wall has no moving parts and carries no load, so it does not wear the way a fan or a pump does. Three things end it instead. A connector works loose or corrodes, which is a quick re-termination rather than a re-run. A cable gets nicked or crushed during unrelated work, a bathroom refit or a new socket, which is a localised repair. Or the standard moves on: Cat 5e cut for the broadband of fifteen years ago may not carry what the house wants next, even though every metre of it still passes a signal. Only the last of these is a true end-of-life, and it is a decision about capacity, not a failure.

Why this page has no repair calculator

Cabling does not fit a repair-or-replace cost comparison the way a boiler or a roof does, so there is no calculator here. A failed connector is re-terminated for the cost of an hour; a run that has been outgrown is not repaired at all but replaced with a higher-grade cable, and the number that decides it is the labour of getting new cable through a finished wall, which depends entirely on the route. Where the cable runs in accessible trunking or conduit, an upgrade is cheap; where it is buried in plaster, the wall is the cost, not the cable. That is a route question for an electrician or data installer, not an annual-cost sum.

When to plan an upgrade

Mikko’s house outside Turku was wired with Cat 5e when it was built in 2004, twenty-two years into a 15-to-25-year range, and every socket still works. Nothing has failed. What has changed is that he now works from home, and the connection the cable was cut for is a fraction of what the house pays for today. The cable is not broken; it is outgrown. Because he is redecorating the study anyway, the sensible move is to pull a higher-grade cable while the skirting is off and the route is open, rather than as a standalone job later that means lifting finished trim. Timing the upgrade to work already happening is the whole saving.

What this means before you call anyone

Home cabling is the component you plan around other jobs rather than on its own clock. The copper rarely forces your hand, so the move is to note where the runs are and what grade they are, and to upgrade the ones that matter when a wall is already open for something else. The plan in appkeep records each cabling run and its grade in your property’s file, so when a room comes up for other work you already know whether the cable in that wall is worth pulling out while access is free.