We have two T1 circuits that need to be extended about 250 feet. Obviously, this is no big deal and we generally use T-screened cable for this. At this particular site, there are four existing Type 1 IBM cables running the exact route.

From what I remember about IBM cables, hey have ultra low capacitance and 22 ga. solid individually-shielded pairs, plus an outer jacket shield. Any reason that we can't use this cable for the application?

Ed -

They should work fine. We always ran General Cable or WE. They were 22AWG, screend and shielded. The IBM should work fine, I would just put one circuit on each cable, or else put the transmits on one cable and the receives on the other.

But why not test it? Throw a set of RJ48x jacks on it and put a sunset or t-bird across it. That'll prove it out one way or the other.

Sam

I agree with Silversam. Those IBM type 1/1A cables are in indeed solid 22-guage with individually shielded twisted pairs. Here's a tech summary that further describes the different IBM cable types.