The introduction of twisted-pair wiring into standard Ethernet networking ushered in a new age of network connectivity. For some time, frustrated users had been experimenting with thinnet-to-twisted-pair baluns in order to use existing telephone wire for network links. Several manufacturers even introduced proprietary network adapters and hubs for twisted-pair Ethernet. Eventually, a standard was fashioned, under the umbrella of the IEEE 802.3, to deploy a new twisted pair Ethernet topology called 10BaseT.

This new standard and its higher-speed successors were very well accepted and robust, indeed. They have been so successful that they have virtually eliminated the installation of new 10Base5 and 10Base2 networks. The need to specify a system of universal telecommunications cabling that would allow the proper operation of 10BaseT (originally) gave rise to a series of new cable, wiring, and component standards that eventually resulted in an industry standard called EIA/TIA-568.

Nowadays, that original 10 Mbps Ethernet is beginning to seem very slow. Ethernet networking has taken a jump first to 100 Mbps, then to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps), and now even to 10 Gbps over twisted-pair cable. Fortunately, the standards committees have kept pace with these developments and have released 100 Mbps, 1000 Mbps, and 10 Gbps standards for network adapters, hubs, switches, cable, and wiring components.