Category Cables (1-7a) Transmission Rates

Communities Blog
1

I found it hard to find any information on category cables beyond category 6 when I was looking for information, but this is the information I have gathered and figured I would share it here.


CAT            Cable           Bandwidth      Data    (category standards are only established


   #               Type              (MHz)            Rate             for category 3 and above)


 CAT1      UTP                       1 MHz      considered inadequate for data transmission (Analog Voice)


 CAT2      UTP                        4 MHz     4Mbps (Digital voice)


 CAT3      UTP/ScTP/STP     16 MHz     4 Mbps


 CAT4      UTP/ScTP/STP     20 MHz     16 Mbps


 CAT5      UTP/ScTP/STP    100 MHz    100Mbps


 CAT5e    UTP/ScTP/STP    100 MHz    1 Gbps


 CAT6      UTP/ScTP/STP    250 MHz    10 Gbps/55 m


 CAT6a    UTP/ScTP/STP    500 MHz    10 Gbps/100 m


 CAT7      ScTP/STP            600 MHz    10 Gbps/100 m


 CAT7a    STP                    1000 MHz    40 Gbps (<15 m)

 

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Cat 5 is only good for 100Mbps. Cat 5e is good for gigabit

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I tried correcting it, but the changes aren't posting.  Probably got switched around when I was trying to get the text formatted with this system because it was a bit temperamental.