Telephone cable - how many pairs?

[Mr_T25]

I see on Amazon and other sites that internal telephone cable reels come in 4 pairs or 6 pairs......

Im looking to wire up a whole house internally, what type of good quality should I be going for and how many pairs?

 

[sparkymarka]

Copper 3 pair or 4 pair .... You only need 1 pair and 1 pair plus one for a slave .... To be honest no one bothers anymore they just buy a dect triple pack of cordless phones ...

 

[Mr_T25]

True, but always good to have the sockets for fax (remember those!?) or just if you want to have a fixed phone somewhere. Cant use cordless in an emergency if a power cut. Why do some cables have 6 pairs?

 

[sparkymarka]

Are you sure it's not 6 core ( 3 pair) ?
What you need is CW1308 cable

 

[PBC_1966]

Why do some cables have 6 pairs?

Telephone cabling comes in all manner of sizes from 2-pair up to hundreds of pairs. You might use a 6-pair cable to run three different lines to outlets around the house, for example. Or two pairs to a regular extension jack and the third as a separate feed for your DSL modem.

Some business PBX telephone systems use 3 pairs to each extension to provide for all the extra features. Often larger cables (6 pairs, 12 pairs, 25 pairs, 50 pairs or more) are run to a distribution point from which smaller cables then run to individual outlets. Remember this cabling is used for far more than just single domestic telephone lines.

 

[Mr_T25]

Are you sure it's not 6 core ( 3 pair) ?
What you need is CW1308 cable

Yes quite possibly.

I ordered the following although I would have preferred white but needed this for tomorrow.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00MMCX71I/ref=ya_st_dp_summary

 

[sparkymarka]

Do they deliver on good Friday ?

 

[Mr_T25]

Yea they do. Prime deliver on all public holidays except Xmas day.

 

[PBC_1966]

I ordered the following although I would have preferred white but needed this for tomorrow.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00MMCX71I/ref=ya_st_dp_summary

That's flat modular cord intended for flexible connections to equipment. It is not suitable for fixed internal wiring to standard BT-type jacks.

 

[M1Chanical]

Is cat5e cable suitable for the for task?

 

[bernardgreen]

That is not suitable for punch down ( IDC ) connections as it's conductors are ( almost certainly ) stranded wires and not one solid wires.

Also being flat the pairs will not be twisted so electrical noise pick up will be higher and broad band speeds may suffer.

Is cat5e cable suitable for the for task?

It will work but in some circumstances it can degrade the ADLS signal which is designed to travel along CW1308 cable. ( this is disputed )

 

[Mr_T25]

How annoying. Why do they sell it then as phone cable?

 

[bernardgreen]

Why do they sell it then as phone cable

To make money.

The flat cable is phone cable but for intended for use as flexible cable between the socket on the wall and an item of equipment that is not fixed. A meter or two will not be a problem.

 

[Mr_T25]

Ok will reject the delivery as its out for dispatch already.

Will revert to using my Cat6 cable then, I have enough spare of that.

 

[rsgaz]

Will revert to using my Cat6 cable then

No, don't do that, Cat6 is 23AWG, so will not fit properly in IDC terminations designed for 24AWG (which cat5e and CW1308 are). All telephone junction boxes, faceplates, etc are intended for 24AWG wire.

What you need is CW1308 cable

What he said

.

Gaz