FAQ
Straight answers about RCDD design work.
Everything clients, GCs, and partner firms ask before working with us — answered the way we’d answer on a call. No marketing-speak rephrasing.
Hiring an RCDD
Registered Communications Distribution Designer — BICSI’s credential for ICT (information and communications technology) design. It certifies that the holder designs telecom infrastructure — structured cabling, pathways, spaces, outside plant — against the BICSI and TIA standards bodies of knowledge, and it carries continuing-education and recertification requirements. It is a design credential, not an installer license and not a state-issued engineering license.
Three places it becomes a requirement: the owner’s specification (many Division 27 specs require RCDD-designed or RCDD-reviewed drawings), the AHJ’s acceptance criteria for the telecom package, and bid qualification (a named RCDD on the org chart). Even where it isn’t required, a credentialed telecom designer is useful when the package has to coordinate rooms, pathways, backbone, and testing with the rest of the building.
BICSI maintains a public credential directory. Ask for the designer’s name as registered and check it — a legitimate RCDD will expect you to. Ours is verifiable the same way.
The design and review standards do not change, but the scope must account for who has eyes on the site. We work in the client-approved file environment, use scheduled coordination and live video walks where appropriate, and define written response windows in the proposal. Any required site observation remains an explicit project responsibility.
It depends on scope: a peer review of an existing package costs a fraction of a full design; a multi-building OSP refresh is its own animal. We quote fixed fees from defined scope, so the number is known before work starts. Reach out with drawings or a scope narrative and you’ll have a real proposal quickly — not an hourly guess.
Honest answer: it depends on current commitments — we’re a deliberately small practice and don’t overbook. Peer reviews and consultations usually start within days. Ask; you’ll get a real date, and if we can’t hit your schedule we’ll say so on the first call.
Stamps, codes & compliance
We can provide RCDD review and electronic sign-off remotely, with the date and revision recorded. That is a credentialed design sign-off, not a professional engineering seal: ICT Design Partners is not a PE firm and does not seal engineering drawings. Where the AHJ or contract requires a PE seal, it stays with the project’s licensed engineer, and we coordinate the telecom work with them — that division of roles is common on telecom packages.
Often, for communications scope — but it’s the AHJ’s call and varies by jurisdiction. The reliable approach is confirming acceptance with the specific building department before the bid. Our state-by-state Stamp Guide covers how the decision works and what to check in each state.
The current-edition BICSI TDMM for design discipline; ANSI/TIA-568, -569, -606, -607, and -758 for cabling and pathways; the NEC and local AHJ amendments as the code overlay; ANSI/NECA/BICSI 568 as the installation reference. Project specifications take precedence wherever they’re tighter — and we document any conflict resolution explicitly.
Permits are pulled by the licensed installing contractor or the GC — we produce the telecom drawing set for permit review, help answer plan-review comments within scope, and coordinate with the AHJ on the telecom package when that helps. We design anywhere; installation licensing is your contractor’s lane.
Working with us
The proposal defines the approved file environment, drawing versions, coordination cadence, response windows, and who handles site observation. The client project room can keep drawings, approvals, RFIs, invoices, and messages tied to the same project record instead of a loose inbox thread.
Scope-dependent, but a full design package includes: drawing set (plans, risers, elevations, details), specifications, bill of materials with quantities, standards-traceability notes, and revision history — issued through formal transmittals. Peer reviews return a marked-up set plus a severity-ranked issue log where every finding cites the standard it’s based on.
From a single telecom-room redesign or a one-set peer review up to campus-scale OSP work. We’re the wrong fit if you need a 30-person production studio — and we’ll tell you that on the first call rather than discover it at week six.
Yes. ICT Design Partners is structured to support project-specific subcontract and white-label engagements under the prime contractor’s project number, file structure, and title block. Each opportunity is reviewed against the scope, agreement, insurance and onboarding requirements, data handling, and place of performance before we commit.
Yours, by preference — SharePoint, BIM 360/ACC, Procore, or plain structured folders. Drawings in AutoCAD or Revit per your standards. If you don’t have a file standard, we bring one.
Every issued set is versioned with a revision history. In the client project room you review the set, comment directly on sheets, and sign off electronically — the approval record carries who, when, and which revision, which is exactly what you want in the file when questions come up at closeout.
Yes — that’s our Design Review / QA service. You get an independent, standards-cited second opinion: severity-ranked findings, each tied to the BICSI/TIA/NEC clause it rests on, before you commit a number to paper.
Federal contracting isn’t our focus. We serve general contractors, A/E firms, and building owners on commercial and institutional work. If your project touches federal requirements, we’ll be straight about where our scope fits and where it doesn’t.
White-label & overflow
We design under your brand: your title block, your file and layer standards, your project numbering. Deliverables go through your QA gate before your client sees them. NDAs and non-competes are standard practice for us, and the engagement can be hourly, weekly, or fixed-fee per package.
No. For a white-label engagement, the proposal can include appropriate confidentiality, non-solicitation, and client-contact boundaries. Those terms are reviewed with the rest of the agreement before work starts.
Yes, as a named subconsultant — that’s common for bid qualification. What we don’t do is lend the credential without doing the design work behind it; the sign-off follows the work.
Yes. A/E firms often hand off one piece: enlarged telecom room plans and rack elevations, a Division 27 spec edit, backbone diagrams, or a batch of RFI and submittal responses. The overflow support page explains how those engagements are scoped and run.
Normally the firm that issues the documents. When we work under your firm, you keep final review and professional responsibility under your contract, and we are responsible for our work within the agreed scope. ICT Design Partners does not seal engineering drawings.
Question we didn't cover?
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