Five technologies that changed the cabling industry

Patrick McLaughlin

If you flip through the pages of industry magazines or walk the floor of a trade show, you`ll see that manufacturers in the cabling industry are constantly bringing new products to market. Some products fail to live up to their hype; others prove themselves and silence doubters. Then there are those that seem to come out of nowhere and take the industry by surprise. Regardless of how they`ve been marketed, the five technologies highlighted here have deeply impacted the cabling industry. Each of the five technologies is available from several manufacturers, so we refer to them as technological breakthroughs; the technology, rather than a single product, has profoundly affected the cabling industry over the past five years.