Is CAT6 550 MHz cable the same as CAT6a?

[leabre]

I am getting ready to begin wiring my house for Gigabit networking (and wireless AC) but am actively looking for the right opportunity to upgrade to 10GBaseT, also. I'm aware of what the standards say about CAT6 and CAT6a (250Mhz vs. 500Mhz). Some CAT6 cables appear to be marked as 550Mhz. I will likely not make a single cable run of more than 75 ft. (22 meters) and 500 ft (152 meters) total for the project so I may not be impacted too much by this. But I only want to pull cables once. My keystones and patch are Cat6a rated as is the wires from patch board to switch.

I would like to know whether the CAT6 550 MHz cable is the same as CAT6a technically. There's a huge price difference between the two and if they are similar enough I'd go for the CAT6 instead (I'm actually not trying to budget, I just want the right thing and if both are equal'ish... ). I'm looking only at 100% copper solid cables for running through the walls.

 

[RealBeast]

No, CAT 6a is shielded twisted pair cable while CAT 6 is unshielded. So it is about more than just the 500MHz v 250MHz. The shielding reduces crosstalk, especially at higher frequencies allowing longer runs with 6a.

CAT 6 is rated for 10Gb networks if the runs are kept down to about 55m, while 6a is rated for runs up to 100m.

 

[bill001g]

The cable manufactures are up to the old tricks again. They still try to confuse people into buy cat6 over cat5e to run 1g when it makes no difference.

It really tough to say. The most important feature of cat6a cable being able to run 10g is the 500mhz ability. Since the 550mhz is higher it means it will easily pass the traffic. The difference I have seen listed is the cat6a cable normally has a plastic core in the middle the pairs are twisted around. The claim being this reduces the interference when you are running all the pairs at high rates. Still I have see cable that is marked cat6a that does not have this core in the middle.

When you look at the 10g specs it pretty much says the cable must be certified which the only way to do is to test it with a meter after it is pulled.

You have to be very careful about spending money now just in case for the future. The cat6 scam was the largest. They used to say you should put in cat6 because in the future you could run 5g over it. BUT the standard jumped directly to 10g and normal cat6 will not work except in short distances.

In your case you likely could use normal cat6 cable because your distances are short in a house and it still meets the official standard. If you were to use the 550mhz cable even if it did not officially meet the specs for 10g it likely would work.

10g is so far off for home use most people will have moved to another house before a investment in 10g cable pays off.

 

[RealBeast]

Total agreement -- I use CAT6 since it costs the same as CAT5e basically, but 6a makes no sense.

I still have spools of thinnet in the closet with boxes of terminators and BNC connectors, so I am painfully aware of obsolescence and it will happen again and again.

 

[VernonAMiller]

After a lot of research, I agree with the thoughts about Cat6a not being worth it at this point for home use. I'm in the tech business and do advanced development on networking. 10G is great, don't get me wrong, but it will be at least a few years before 10G products come down in price enough to make it affordable for home use, and by the time that happens, 40G (which is in development) will be on the way. And 100G looks like it's coming after that.

I think the best we can do for "future-proofing" is to use conduit so that when we need to move to "the new thing", whatever that is, we can pull new runs of whatever cable it needs. That's what I did in my house. For now, I'm using Cat5e because I have boxes of it that I've already paid for, and Gigabit is fine for me right now. Besides, I like the bold, avant-garde look of orange Resi-Gard 🙂 I know that's not practical or cost effective for many installers or jobs, but it's something to think about.

Even if you can't use conduit, maybe you can architect your runs so that you might be able to re-pull new by attaching to the end of the old wire and pulling it out, or perhaps you can include a pull string with the run for the next guy to use.

Thanks for listening.
Vernon Miller