Is Cat 6 UTP cable worth using?

My telephone cable currently enters my house in the hallway and connects to the master socket. A standard 4 pair cable then snakes up the stairs under the carpet to my study where I have a PC and telephone. (Only terminals 2 + 5 used)

I am having new carpets and will take the opportunity to run a new extension outside my house and into the study. Neater and a shorter run.

My question is, should I use Cat 6 UTP for this? I was planning to use one pair for my ADSL line and another pair for the telephone.

Any advice would be welcome.

4 pair? What type of cable is it? BT standard telephony cable is 3 pair.


Cat6 will be fine - but a little stiff to bend and manoeuvre - Cat5e will do just as well, and is smaller and more flexible. I use Cat6 to run 4 lines from my ISDN PBX to the house/office distribution box (it was all I had on that day) and it was a real nuisance getting it through.

I just ran CAT6 through my house for networking, didn't find it too much more difficult to run than cat5e.

What to consider is when will you next be removing the carpet, sometimes its best to use the oppertunity to just put in the best you can to try and future proof yourself for as many situations as possible. Cat6 also provides better sheilding, so less noise.

In reply to a post by tarkadahl:

What to consider is when will you next be removing the carpet...

The carpet is not the problem as I will now be running cable outside and not under the carpet.

In reply to a post by MHC:

4 pair? What type of cable is it? BT standard telephony cable is 3 pair.

Sorry...3 pair

I agree it is sensible to get the best possible but I need black and it seems Cat6 is difficult to get in black so I will get Cat5.

The UTP comes in "Outdoor" quality (is this necessary, I am running outside), and also "standard" and "solid". I am guessing "solid" is less flexible but anything else to consider?

Edited by Nick_Russell (Fri 18-Mar-11 17:08:13)

Use external for outside - it is UV resistant and has better abrasion resistance.

Always give fs cables www.fscables.com a call for colours and external. They will sell by the metre for external.

They can provide Cat5e or Cat6 in duct or armoured - duct is fine for pinning to walls and armoured if going underground

Edited by MHC (Fri 18-Mar-11 17:12:36)

In reply to a post by tarkadahl:

Cat6 also provides better sheilding, so less noise.

What shielding? Cat6 does NOT have any shielding.

I'm assuming you mean stranded no standard.
Solid core is used for infrastructure and stranded is used for patch leads, you need solid core for your job.

Update now job finished...

I managed to buy Cat6 External Black here -

Cat6 External Black 100m

Had to buy 100m, only needed about 10!

Sockets from Clarity -

Modified BT NTE5 Master ADSL Adaptor

Modular Wall sockets

I bought a single RJ45 and a double BT socket (for telephone and PC modem for fax)

I ran one pair for ASDL line, from master socket ( A & B terminals, unfiltered ) to RJ45 socket in study, and another pair from master socket (2&5, filtered) to both BT sockets for 'phone and fax. One small note, I had previously removed the bell wire from terminal 3. With the new Clarity faceplate, one of my older telephones would not ring without the bell wire attached. I assume this is something to do with electronics within the socket.

All went OK.

Unfortunately I did not get any improvement in speed, if fact it got a bit worse. I was getting 5-6 Mbps and I now get around 5.5 Mbbs. Noise margin went from below 4 db to 8 or more. From what I read this will give me a more stable connection but may reduce speed. Is this correct?

In reply to a post by Nick_Russell:

from master socket ( A & B terminals, unfiltered )

I assume you mean that the faceplate having an integrated filter has a passthrough for A+B in addition to 2,3,4,5 so you are not touching the terminals at the very rear of the master?

Modern phones are more likely to have their own circuitry to be able to ring from just the balanced pair. Some older phones needed help from the master's ring circuitry using the bell wire, but retaining this introduces noise (and unbalances the pair if I understand it).

If there is a significant difference with the bell wire disconnected Is it worth replacing the problem phone(s)?

Hope you're not offended if you've checked that your wiring (don't know if you used a cable tester)
- is using consistent colours rather than either of the pairs being split across different colours
- is not taking any sharp bends or being crushed at any point
- is not allowing any unused wire to make contact with something inside the sockets

Yes, A&B are unfiltered 2 & 5 terminals. Description here -

Clarity ADSL Adaptor for BT NTE5

I had removed the bell wire prior to installing the Clarity NTE5 and my old telephone worked OK, but it does not now. No real problem I guess. With Cat6 cable I am assuming leaving the bell wire connected will not cause a problem as I am using one pair (A&B) for ADSL and another pair(2&5) for telephone.


Speed update - no improvement yet but Netgear router now reports sync at 7734 kbps and margin 4.3 db so maybe speed will improve in a day or two.