Differences Between Phone & Network Cable

When connecting the computer to the network devices like switches and routers, you must use a network cable, namely an Ethernet patch cable. A regular phone cable will not work, even though it looks similar to a network cable. There are some differences between Ethernet cable vs phone cable, including:

Network cables, including Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, etc., are twisted pair cables for carrying signals in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet. An Ethernet network cable consists of 8 wires; twisted, and made into 4 pairs, each colour coded by a solid colour with their respective dashed/striped white cables. While phone cables are narrower and flat, and are made up of four wires. Thus, a network cable is wider than a phone cable, resulting in larger bandwidth than phone cable.

The connectors terminated with an Ethernet network cable are commonly known as RJ-45 connectors. Phone cables have the similar connectors called RJ-11. “RJ” is short for registered jack. The RJ-45 has eight contacts that accept eight wires, also know as pins. Network cables usually have more pins than phone cables. Thus, RJ-45 connector is larger than an RJ-11 connector. And as a result, the jack for network cables is wider than a phone’s cable.

Phone cables are generally used for home telephone lines and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections. Ethernet network cables are typically used to interconnect computers and network devices such as hubs, switches and routers. Depending on different connection, there are straight-through network cable and crossover network cable for choice.

Ethernet cable vs phone cable, they look alike, and both send and receive information. But as mentioned above, they differ in many ways. Are there other differences between them? Let us know in the comments.

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