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Difference between Twisted pair cable, Coaxial cable, and Fiber optics cable

November 9, 2022

Twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, and fiber optic cable are communication media. The main difference between the twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, and fiber optic cable is, fiber optic cable is made of glass or plastic fibers and is used for transmitting data over long distances at high speeds.

Twisted pair cable is made of two copper wires that are twisted together and are commonly used in Ethernet networks. Coaxial cable is made of copper wire surrounded by an insulating material and is often used in cable television networks.

Twisted pair cables

Twisted pair cables are an essential part of any home or office setup because they transfer data at high speeds without any interference. A twisted pair cable consists of two wires twisted together to provide conductivity between the two ends of the wire.

image showing the twisted pair cable

Twisted pair cables are commonly used in telephone networks, computer networking, and data communications.

Coaxial Cable

Coaxial cable is a combination of both fiber optics and copper wire. It is commonly used in television transmission systems. Coaxial cable is composed of three parts: the center conductor (or inner conductor), the insulator, and the outer conductor.

image showing the coaxial cable

Fiber Optics

Fiber optics is a communication technology that uses glass fibers to transmit data over long distances at high speeds. These cables have been around since the early 1900s, but they were not widely adopted until the 1980s.

image showing the fiber optic cable

Fiber optics is now being used in many different industries including telecommunications, computer networking, and medical equipment.

Twisted pair cable vs Coaxial Cable vs Fiber optic cable

The main differences between twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, and fiber optic cable are as follows:

Twisted pair cableCoaxial CableFiber Optic cable
Its bandwidth is low.Its bandwidth is very high.Its bandwidth is high.
It is inexpensive.It is more expensive than twisted pair cable.It is very costly.
It supports a low data rate.It supports a high data rate.It supports a very high data rate.
It is affected by external magnetic material.It is affected by the external magnetic materialIt is affected by the external magnetic material
Twisted pair cable has low noise immunity.Coaxial cable has higher noise immunity as compared to twisted pair cable.Fiber optical cable has higher noise immunity.
It is easy to install.It is easy to install.It isn’t easy to install.
Attenuation is lowThe attenuation is very high.The attenuation is very low.