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An UTP cable is made up of a bundle of twisted pairs. The twisted pairs are small 22- or 24- American Wire Gauge (AWG) sized wires twisted around each other.
The wires are typically made of copper with polyethylene (PE) or FEP insulation which is color coded depending on the application of the cable being made.
For instance, AT&T pioneered the 25-pair color code UTP cable for indoor telephone applications with color-pairs like white-blue, blue-white, white-orange, orange-white and others.
The bundle is often covered with a PE jacket typically colored grey. The two wires carry equal yet opposite signals and the destination of the signal detects the difference between the two.
They are typically used in computer networking such as Ethernet for short-to-medium distances because of their relatively cheap price compared to optical fiber and coaxial cables.
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