Structured cabling is one of the most significant infrastructure decisions your business will make — and also one of the easiest to get wrong. Choosing the wrong cable standard today means expensive upgrades in 3–5 years. Choosing the right one means 20+ years of reliable service.
The Three Main Standards Explained
Cat5e — The Legacy Choice
Cat5e (Category 5 enhanced) supports speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second at up to 100m. It was the standard for most installations completed before 2015. If you have Cat5e already installed, it will work fine for standard office use with 1Gbps switches.
Our recommendation: Only choose Cat5e if budget is severely constrained. For any new installation, Cat6 or Cat6A is the appropriate choice.
Cat6 — The Current Standard
Cat6 supports 1Gbps at 100m and 10Gbps at up to 55m. It has tighter twist specifications and often includes a central separator that reduces crosstalk. It's slightly thicker than Cat5e and requires compatible connectors.
Cat6 is our standard recommendation for most office, retail and light commercial installations where the cable runs are under 55m and 10Gbps is not required to the desktop.
Best for: Offices up to 500m², retail, hospitality, small warehouses
Cat6A — The Future-Proof Choice
Cat6A (Category 6 Augmented) supports 10Gbps at the full 100m — no distance limitation. It is significantly thicker and heavier than Cat6, requires larger conduit and more careful installation, and costs approximately 25–40% more.
However, Cat6A is the TIA-568 recommended standard for new installations, and with 10Gbps to the desktop becoming increasingly relevant for high-performance workstations, video editing and data-heavy applications, it future-proofs your infrastructure for 15–20 years.
Best for: Larger offices, data centres, server rooms, spine-leaf connections, any location where 10Gbps may be needed in future
When to Use Fibre Instead
For backbone runs between floors, between buildings or for distances over 100m, structured copper cabling isn't the answer. We use:
- OM4 multimode fibre — for runs up to 400m between switches (100Gbps capable)
- OS2 single-mode fibre — for runs up to 10km between sites or buildings
Most office buildings use copper to the desk and fibre between floors or between the comms room and network closets.
The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong
We regularly visit sites where Cat5e was installed in 2018 and the client is now trying to run 10Gbps switches to support video conferencing, 4K monitors and cloud-based applications. The result: complete recabling of the premises — at full cost, with the disruption of pulling new cables through walls and ceilings already in use.
Cat6A costs roughly £80–120 more per drop than Cat5e (cable, connectors, labour). Recabling a 20-drop office typically costs £3,000–5,000. The maths is clear.
Our Recommendation
For most new commercial installations in 2024 and beyond, we specify Cat6A as standard. The additional cost is modest relative to the overall project, and it eliminates the risk of having to re-cable in 5 years when 10Gbps to the desktop becomes routine.
🔌 Get a Cabling Specification
Wifly provide free network design consultations for businesses across Bristol and the South West. We'll assess your requirements and specify the right cabling standard for your project.
