The Category 5 Enhanced cabling standard for networks is referred to as Cat5e. Cat5e cables are commonly used to support 10BASE-T (Ethernet), full-duplex 100BASE-TX (Fast Ethernet), and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) networks in Ethernet infrastructures.

Cat5e technology can deliver speeds of up to 100 MHz. The Cat5e cable standard is comparable to the Cat5 cable standard from the previous generation. Twisted pairs of copper wire are used to transfer signals in each of these cable types. Their bandwidth is the same as well. The performance standards differ between Category 5 cable and Category 5 Enhanced cable.