Category 1-7 Twisted Pair Cable

ANSI/EIA (American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Association) Standard 568 specifies "categories" (or "CAT") of twisted pair cabling components by the data rates that they can maintain. The specifications determine the types of cable, connectors, junction blocks, etc. to be used. Here are the categories:

Category	Speed	Used for:
CAT 1	1 Mbps or less	telephone (POTS) ISDN doorbells
CAT 2	4 Mbps	Token Ring networks
CAT 3	16 Mbps	10BASE-T Ethernet
CAT 4	20 Mbps	16 Mbps Token Ring
CAT 5	100 Mbps 1000 Mbps (4 pair)	100 Mbps TPDDI 155 Mbps ATM Gigabit Ethernet
CAT 5E	350 MHz	100 Mbps TPDDI 155 Mbps ATM
CAT 6	550 MHz	High-speed applications
CAT 7 (Proposed)	600-700 MHz	Super-fast applications

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