Yes, Category 6 (CAT 6) will be very effective in the residential market. For every residential contractor and builder that knows, home networking, home entertainment, and surround sound home theater installations are in demand for homes, so you should install CAT 6. Category 6 is the best choice for future proofing your home: home networking, high speed internet access, and audio/video distribution.

Installing CAT 6 for your home networking needs provides great benefits. First, CAT 6 cable is backwards compatible, so you can use it with a CAT 5e structured wiring system to save on buying new materials and to save on labor costs for replacing obsolete cable in the future. However, the resultant channel will be rated CAT 5e, because a channel is rated according to the lowest performing component that is included in the channel (TIA-568-B.1). Second, a complete CAT 6 system will support the highest bandwidths for home networking; as a result you can network the entire home with data for multi-user computers, printers, scanners, and cable modem or DSL internet access. Finally, CAT 6 also supports voice applications. You can choose to distribute voice to any room in the home for multiple telephones, fax machines, and dial-up internet access.

Home entertainment and surround sound home theater installations are in demand. To support these applications, CAT 6 cable can be used with audio and video components which allow you to save on buying different types of cables. You can choose RCA female-to-IDC and S-Video-to-IDC modular connectors that allow signal transfer over CAT 6 UTP cable. These modular connectors come in different colored housings and different colored inserts for easy circuit identification. They can be custom configured from the widest selection of configurable faceplates available to match any home interior and exterior décor.

For technical reference please review TIA/EIA standard 570-A “Residential Standards”.