I had never heard or read about Cat 6 before, probably because I had no reason to look for it. I want to move my fiber optic modem/router and need a longer 10 foot cable instead of a 6 foot cable. I looked at the current cable and it turned out to be Cat 5. I bought them and replaced the Cat 5 with one of the new Cat 6 cables. Everything is working fine. No problem. Plug and play, I'm satisfied.