What type of cable is UTP?

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cabling is characterized by its configuration, which consists of pairs of wires twisted together without additional shielding. This design helps to reduce electromagnetic interference and crosstalk between the pairs, making UTP an effective choice for networking in data centers and office environments.

The absence of shields in UTP makes it lighter and more flexible than shielded twisted pair (STP) cabling, which has an additional layer of shielding to reduce interference. While this shielding can enhance performance in noisy environments, UTP is typically sufficient for many applications, especially where lower costs and ease of installation are priorities.

Coaxial cable and fiber optic cable serve different purposes and are constructed differently. Coaxial cable features a single copper conductor at its core surrounded by an insulation layer, a metallic shield, and an outer insulating layer, which is not aligned with the definition of UTP. Fiber optic cables use light to transmit data and consist of glass or plastic fibers, making them fundamentally different from twisted pair cabling.

Thus, UTP is specifically defined as unshielded twisted pairs of wires used primarily for data transmission in local area networks (LANs), making "Unshielded twisted pair cabling" the correct