DELTA Cat 6A junction box — 500MHz, 10GBASE-T ready — but unshielded. This is not a mistake. Cat 6A UTP (unshielded twisted pair) is a real cable category that achieves 10-Gigabit performance through tighter twist ratios and internal pair separators rather than a foil shield. This outlet matches that cable type.

Why would I choose unshielded Cat 6A over shielded Cat 6E?

Two different priorities collide. Cat 6E shielded (5TG2026-1) gives you EMI protection for noisy environments — the metal housing provides a Faraday cage. Cat 6A unshielded (this product) gives you 10-Gigabit speed in electrically quiet environments — offices, residential, classrooms. Counterintuitively, this Cat 6A outlet costs less than the Cat 6E shielded variant because the unshielded plastic housing is simpler to manufacture than the metal shielded housing. You are trading shielding for bandwidth.

Does 10GBASE-T really work over unshielded Cat 6A?

Yes — IEEE 802.3an-2006 defines 10GBASE-T operation over both shielded and unshielded Cat 6A cabling at up to 100m. The key requirement is alien crosstalk (ANEXT) suppression, which Cat 6A UTP achieves through internal construction rather than external foil. However, in practice, the achievable distance over UTP is more sensitive to installation quality: avoid tight bends, keep pair twists as close to the termination point as possible, and do not bundle UTP Cat 6A cables tightly together for long parallel runs. If the installation environment has known EMI sources (VFDs, welding equipment, high-current busbars), use shielded Cat 6A instead.

How does this compare to the Cat 6E shielded variant (5TG2026-1)?