What cable category should you choose?
Now its Cat 6, but there is also Cat 6A, it used to be Cat 5 and Cat 5E. How do I choose? The simple answer: choosing the right cable depends on the application. While CAT6 and Cat6A are the same gauge of copper wire, Cat 6A is more precisely manufactured with tighter tolerances and twist rates to meet more stringent cable specifications.
If you want to talk future-proofing your network, Cat 6A is it and is recommended by industry standards for all new deployments. Truthfully, it will provide peace of mind for supporting the latest LAN applications.
Currently (2024) here in Canada Cat 6A is quite a bit more expensive, depending on manufacturer it can be double the cost or more per box. So, if you’re working on a tighter budget and only need to support Gigabit speeds and lower levels PoE, with no plans to deploy more advanced applications, Cat 6 is certainly a very good option.
To help determine the cable category need, a few simple questions might ascertain the answers:
- What performance speed are you supporting – 1G, 2.5G, 5G, or 10 Gigabits?
- Have you deployed level 5 or 6 Wi-Fi on your network?
- Is insertion loss a concern? (It increases with heat and distance)
- What class of PoE needs to be supported?
Cat 6 will work for most network drops quite well: Servicing PCs or other AC powered devices, Cat 6 may be all that is needed on 1G networks. But the Backbone cabling between data closet switches, cabling to newer Access Points, or PoE devices needing 60W plus would be better served with Cat 6A.
Either way a conversation with your Network Cabling Technician will answer your questions.