Beyond Cat5e: When to Upgrade Your Office to Cat6A (or Higher) for Future‑Ready Networking

Beyond Cat5e: When to Upgrade Your Office to Cat6A (or Higher) for Future‑Ready Networking

If your office cabling was installed more than a few years ago, there’s a strong chance most of it is Cat5e. It still works, devices connect, and the lights on the switches blink away – so it’s easy to assume everything is fine.

But as more of your business moves to the cloud, Wi‑Fi gets faster, and more devices draw power over the network, that same Cat5e can quietly become the weak link.

So the real question isn’t “Is Cat5e obsolete?”
It’s:

“When does it make business sense to upgrade our office cabling to Cat6A (or higher)?”

This article answers exactly that – in plain English and from a business point of view, not just a technical one.

We’ll cover:

• What’s the practical difference between Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6A
  
• Clear signs it’s time to move beyond Cat5e
  
• When Cat5e is still perfectly acceptable
  
• How to decide between Cat6, Cat6A and higher categories
• What a Cat6A upgrade project actually involves

If you’d like a more general grounding in Ethernet cabling as you read, ACCL’s Ethernet cabling explained guide is a good companion piece.

When should you upgrade from Cat5e to Cat6A? (The short answer)

In simple terms:

You should seriously consider upgrading to Cat6A when your Cat5e cabling limits the speed, reliability or flexibility of how you want to work – especially around Wi‑Fi, cloud apps, video, PoE and office growth.

Let’s unpack that with some concrete triggers.

7 clear signs your office is ready to move beyond Cat5e

If several of these sound familiar, it’s a strong signal that Cat6A (or higher) will give you real, measurable benefits.

1. Your Wi‑Fi is fast on paper, but slow in practice

You’ve invested in modern Wi‑Fi 6 or 6E access points, but users still complain:

• “Teams calls are choppy in the afternoon.”
  
• “Our Wi‑Fi feels no faster than it used to.”
• “Downloads crawl when the office is busy.”

In many cases, the bottleneck isn’t the wireless, it’s the Cat5e cabling feeding the access points. Even if each AP has theoretical multi‑gigabit capacity, a single 1 Gbps Cat5e uplink shared between dozens of users quickly fills up.

Upgrading the cabling to Cat6A and pairing it with suitable switching gives your wireless network room to breathe. There’s far more point in buying high‑end access points once the wired side can keep up.

2. You’re relying heavily on cloud apps and video calls

Five years ago, occasional file uploads and web browsing dominated traffic. Today it’s:

• Always‑on Teams/Zoom calls
  
• Cloud‑hosted CRM/ERP platforms
  
• Shared drives and collaboration tools
  
• Remote desktop and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
  

All of these generate sustained, high‑volume traffic between users and the cloud or data centre. If too many users are funnelling that over old Cat5e backbones and uplinks, you’ll notice:

• Sluggish application response at peak times
  
• Delays opening or saving large files
  
• A general feeling that “the network slows down in the afternoon”

Cat6A doesn’t magically speed up the internet itself – but it does ensure your internal network is no longer the bottleneck between users and the outside world.

3. You’re rolling out more PoE devices (phones, Wi‑Fi, CCTV, access control)

Power over Ethernet (PoE) has gone from novelty to normal:

• IP phones
  
• Wireless access points
  
• IP CCTV cameras
  
• Door controllers and access readers
• IoT and smart building sensors

As you add more PoE‑powered devices, the demand on each cable increases – both in data and in delivered power.

Cat6A is designed to cope better with:

• Higher power PoE standards
  
• Heat build‑up in cable bundles
  
• Electrical noise from dense runs

If you’re modernising phones, CCTV or access control at the same time as refreshing the cabling, building in Cat6A from the start gives you headroom for future devices and PoE standards.

If you want to understand PoE implications more deeply, ACCL’s Power over Ethernet guide in the knowledge base (see The ultimate guide to Power over Ethernet (PoE)) is a helpful resource.

5. You’re seeing more intermittent, hard‑to‑pin‑down network issues

On ageing Cat5e, you might notice:

• “Flaky” ports that randomly drop connections
  
• Higher error counts on switch interfaces
• Particular outlets or areas that seem less reliable than others

Some of this can be down to wear‑and‑tear: cables crushed in furniture, poorly terminated ends, or historical shortcuts during office changes. At a certain point, patching and repairing individual faults is more expensive than refreshing the core cabling properly.

A structured upgrade to Cat6A – with tested, labelled and documented runs – doesn’t just boost performance. It also gives your IT team a far more predictable environment to support.

6. You’re connecting more floors, departments or buildings

As organisations grow, you often end up:

• Linking additional floors in the same building
  
• Connecting separate wings or blocks
  
• Adding satellite offices or outbuildings
  

Those inter‑cabinet and inter‑building links are where Cat5e really starts to struggle. Distances creep up, traffic volumes grow, and the risk of congestion and errors increases.

Upgrading those backbone routes to Cat6A (or fibre, where distances justify it) often delivers outsized benefits compared with a like‑for‑like copper replacement.

For more complex building stock – particularly older or listed properties – you may find ACCL’s dedicated guide on network cabling upgrades in old buildings useful as a reference.

7. You’re trying to “future‑proof” the office

No cabling is truly future‑proof, but some choices give you far more breathing space:

• Newer Wi‑Fi generations will continue to put pressure on uplinks
  
• Video resolutions and file sizes will keep increasing
• More building systems are becoming IP‑based

If you’re already investing in an office move, refit or major IT refresh, staying with Cat5e often means baking in another upgrade a few years down the line.

Choosing Cat6A now is about giving your business options later – especially as many landlords and occupiers increasingly see modern cabling as part of a “Grade A” workspace.

Cat6 vs Cat6A vs “even higher” – how do you choose?

You’ll often see both Cat6 and Cat6A in supplier quotes. From a business perspective:

• Cat6 may be appropriate for shorter runs and less demanding areas, but its 10 Gbps capabilities are distance‑limited and more sensitive to installation quality.

• Cat6A costs a little more per metre and is slightly bulkier, but gives reliable 10 Gbps over a full 100‑metre channel and better noise performance.
  

For new installs, many organisations now treat Cat6A as the baseline, especially in:

• New Grade A offices
  
• Technology‑heavy workspaces
  
• Any space where the lease term is long and future needs are uncertain
  

Higher categories (Cat7, Cat8) are generally only worth considering in very specific, high‑performance data centre scenarios. For normal office networks, they rarely deliver value proportional to their cost and complexity.

If you’d like a closer look at Cat6A specifically, ACCL’s focused explainer What is a Cat 6A cable? offers a deeper dive without drowning you in jargon.

How a Cat6A upgrade project actually works (in real life)

Once you’ve decided Cat6A is the right direction, the next concern is usually disruption.

Here’s how a typical upgrade runs with a structured cabling partner like ACCL.

1. Audit and design

We start by:

• Reviewing your floorplans and existing cabinet locations
• Assessing current cable routes, trays and containment
  
• Understanding how each area of the office is used (desks, meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, labs, warehouses, etc.)
  
• Factoring in growth plans, new ways of working and upcoming projects

From there, we design a Cat6A cabling layout that:

• Maximises re‑use of good existing infrastructure where sensible
  
• Respects building constraints and fire‑stopping requirements
• Delivers the right density of outlets per area, not a one‑size‑fits‑all grid
  

2. Phasing and scheduling to minimise downtime

Most Cat6A upgrade work can be done alongside your existing Cat5e network:

• New cables are run while the old ones are still live
  
• New outlets are terminated and tested in advance
  
• Cutovers are planned in phases (for example, a floor at a time)
  

Where floorplates are being fully refurbished, cabling work is coordinated with the fit‑out programme so that we’re on site at the right times – neither holding up other trades nor arriving too early.

3. Installation, testing and labelling

Our engineers then:

• Install Cat6A cable runs from cabinets to outlets or consolidation points
  
• Terminate and test each link using calibrated testers
  
• Label outlets and patch panels clearly for your IT team
  
• Provide test results to prove standards‑compliant performance

The result is a clean, well‑documented layer of infrastructure your switches and devices can depend on.

4. Cutover, optimisation and tidy‑up

Once the new Cat6A is ready:

• User devices are migrated from old outlets to new ones (often with minimal downtime)
  
• Switch ports and VLANs are mapped to the new patching scheme
  
• Old, redundant cabling is removed where practical to avoid clutter

This stage is also an ideal time to tackle messy cabinets. ACCL frequently combines Cat6A upgrades with data cabinet tidy projects (see our office cabling services) so your comms rooms end up easier to manage than before, not more complicated.

FAQs: Upgrading from Cat5e to Cat6A

Q: Is Cat5e still good enough for 1 Gbps?

Yes – in many cases Cat5e will happily support 1 Gbps over typical office distances if it’s been installed and maintained properly. The issue is less about today’s speed and more about headroom. If you’re starting to need multi‑gigabit uplinks, dense Wi‑Fi or high‑power PoE, Cat5e will increasingly hold you back.

Q: Do we need to replace every single cable with Cat6A?

Not necessarily. Many organisations take a phased approach, focusing first on:

• Backbone links between cabinets and floors
  
• High‑density user areas and meeting spaces
  
• Zones with lots of PoE devices

A structured design will help you prioritise where Cat6A delivers the biggest benefits first.

Q: Will upgrading to Cat6A improve our Wi‑Fi?

Indirectly, yes. Wi‑Fi performance depends on both the wireless side and the wired backhaul. Modern access points can easily push more traffic than a single Cat5e uplink comfortably carries during busy periods. Upgrading cabling (and switching) to support higher throughputs ensures the wireless network isn’t being throttled by the wired layer.

Q: Do we need new switches to use Cat6A?

Cat6A itself is just the medium. To take advantage of higher speeds (such as 10 Gbps), your switches need to support those speeds on the relevant ports. Many modern switches already include multi‑gigabit or 10 Gbps uplink ports that can be used immediately once Cat6A cabling is in place. Part of any upgrade plan should include a review of your switching hardware.

Q: How disruptive is a Cat6A upgrade for staff?

With good planning, disruption can be kept surprisingly low. Most cabling routes are installed in ceilings, risers and floor voids, away from day‑to‑day work. Actual device moves and cutovers can be scheduled out of hours or area‑by‑area, with clear communication. Many clients find staff notice the improvement in performance far more than any short‑term inconvenience.