How Does Cable Frequency Matter for Your Ethernet?

Transmission Speed

The Ethernet cable frequency affects the transmission speed that the copper cables can support. That is to say, the higher the cable frequency, the higher the transmission rate it can achieve. For example, CAT6 network cables support up to 250 MHz which is more than twice that of CAT5e cables (100 Mhz), they offer speeds up to 10GBASE-T Ethernet, whereas CAT5e cables can support up to 1000BASE-T Ethernet.

Transmission Distance

Transmission distance is affected by the frequency the copper cable supports. Typically, under the same conditions, as frequency increases, so does the transmission distance, and vice versa. For example, there is a 10Gbps link for 80m transmission. It’s wise to choose Cat6a cable (500 MHz), not the Cat6 network cables (250 MHZ). Because Cat6a can transfer data up to 100m at 10Gbps rate, while Cat6 only supports up to 55m at 10Gbps.