What is CAT 3?

CAT 3 (Category 3) refers to a type of unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable commonly used for telephone wiring. It supports frequencies up to 16 MHz and was often used for 10BASE-T Ethernet networks, supporting data transfer rates of up to 10 Mbps. While once prevalent, CAT 3 has largely been superseded by CAT 5, CAT 5e, and CAT 6 cables which offer higher bandwidth and faster data transfer speeds. Due to its limited bandwidth, CAT 3 is not suitable for modern network applications.