Verticle TV & Music

Telephone Cable

Each phone line (or phone number) requires two wires for a complete circuit and is connected from the phone company to your office or home. In some areas, fiber optics or other new technology has replaced “copper wiring” from the phone company’s central office to your neighborhood. Still, the last few feet to phone is standard copper wire.

The two wires carrying a phone circuit are generally considered to be a "pair," and are usually twisted together and joined with one or more other pairs, inside an outer protective plastic jacket. This makes up a multi-pair wire or cable. Multi-pair wires are typically available with two, three, four, six, or twelve pairs.

The wire running around inside the walls of most homes and offices has from four to twelve conductors, often arranged as two to six pairs, with each pair twisted together.
Twisted-pair wire varies in the number of twists per inch. Wire with more twists is better and more expensive. Twisted-pair wire is classified in various “categories”. Computer networks generally use Cat5, Cat5e or Cat6 wire, while phones use Cat3 or Cat5 type cable.

Cat5 and higher numbered category wire is capable of higher data transmission speeds, and must be installed properly to avoid loss of speed and data corruption.

Cables with multiple pairs of phone wires use an industry-standard color code, to distinguish one pair from the others. Each wire usually has a base color and a contrasting stripe, and the other wire in the pair is the opposite. For example… in a pair of wires, one wire has the color of orange with white stripes, while the second wire is white with orange stripes.

Wire thickness is indicated by "gauge." The higher the gauge number, the thinner is the wire. Thicker wire allows a signal or voltage to travel a longer distance without noticeable degradation.

The electrical power wire in your walls is usually 12 or 14 gauge. A lamp cord is usually 18 gauge. Phone wiring is usually either 22 or 24 gauge. They are much thinner.
Phone wiring in walls and ceilings is always solid. The short cable between the wall jack and the actual phone is stranded to handle flexing and bending better without breaking.

The modular connector on the ends of telephone cable is designated RJ-11 or RJ-12. Both will fit in a standard modular telephone jack on the wall or on the phone itself.

Look at the website of computerpartsplus.com for various telephone cables and connectors.

About the Author

Donald Daugherty is owner of computerpartsplus.com, an Internet supplier of low cost computer parts and accessories. Quantity discounts are offered on all items.

Twisted pair cable experiment

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