What does data cabling do?
A company’s communication system is crucial to its industrial and commercial success. It is therefore critical that you select the correct cabling system to support your network infrastructure.

Why are there different categories of cabling?
There are various cable categories ranging from Cat-1, Cat-2, Cat-3, Cat-4, Cat-5, Cat-5e, Cat-6 and now Cat 7. The main difference between the categories is their bandwidth capability, which in turn affects data transmission speeds. Categories 1 to 4 are rarely used today as they have limited transmission speeds. Category 5e and Cat 6 are the most commonly used.

Category 7 systems have been designed to have a bandwidth of 600 MHz. This is considerably higher than Category 6, but the standard has not yet been finalised and there are no guarantees that it is compatible with other systems.

What’s the difference between Category 5e and Category 6 cabling?
The real differences between Category 5e and Category 6 are in transmission performance and extension of the available bandwidth from 100MHz for Category 5e to 200 MHz for Category 6. Category 6 has dividers inside the inner core to separate its wire pairs to reduce cross talk (NEXT).

When are the benefits of Category 5e and Category 6 cabling?
Category 5e will work quite satisfactorily for most applications and is fine for the average home and small office network. Category 6 however provides faster network speeds and higher reliability. If your business has a lot of users or transfers large amounts of data across its network e.g. drawing and CAD files, then although it is more expensive Category 6 will provide a faster and more reliable service.

It is also worth noting that because Category 6 cabling is very fragile it has a limited bed radius. This can make installation quite difficult as it restricts where the cabling can run and will require wider trunking.

When choosing your data cables you also need to consider future proofing your investment. If your business is going to grow substantially in the future, or your network will be required to support more applications and larger amounts of data, then Category 6 is more likely to meet your business needs in the long term.