Category 4 Cable

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What Does Category 4 Cable Mean?

A Category 4 cable (Cat 4 cable) is a type of twisted pair cable used mainly in telecommunication networks and some computer networks. It was defined in the ANSI/EIA/TIA 568 and ISO/IEC 11801 specifications.

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A Cat 4 cable has a variant in unshielded (UTP) and shielded twisted pair (STP) cables, but UTP is the primary version.

Techopedia Explains Category 4 Cable

A Cat 4 cable consists of four pairs of UTP copper cables. It was initially developed for token ring, 10Base-T and 100Base-4 networks but gained much usage in telecom-based communications. It provides 20 MHz of bandwidth with a data transfer rate (DTR) of up to 16 Mbps. However, for ANSI/EIA/TIA 568, the Cat 4 cable is rated at 20 MHz and 100 MHz for ISO/IEC 11801 specification.

The Cat 4 cable is no longer in use and is not supported by current data cabling standards and associated devices.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.