Prior to 1991, telecommunications cabling was controlled by the manufacturers of computer equipment. End-users were confused by manufacturers' conflicting claims concerning transmission performance and were forced to pay high installation and administration costs for proprietary systems.

The telecommunications industry recognized the need to define a cost-effective, efficient cabling system that would support the widest possible range of applications and equipment. The Electronic Industries Association (EIA), Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and a large consortium of leading telecommunications companies worked cooperatively to create the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-1991 Commercial Building Telecommunications Wiring Standard. Additional standards documents covering pathways and spaces, administration, cables and connecting hardware were subsequently released. The ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-1991 was revised in 1995, and is now referred to as ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard. The goal of these standards is to define "structured cabling" a telecommunications cabling system that can support virtually any voice, imaging, or data application that an end-user chooses.

Today, as more and more end-users move to open systems, active equipment is being developed based upon the assumption that the cabling portion of the physical layer is standards compliant: i.e. reliable and capable of specific transmission performance. The risks of non-compliant cabling are numerous: sub-standard network performance; higher costs for moves, adds, and changes; and the inability to support emerging technologies. As the acceptance of standards-compliant structured cabling has grown, the price of installed networking equipment has dropped and performance has exponentially increased. The physical layer has evolved into an affordable bandwidth-rich business resource.

• Much publicity is given to transmission performance, but the '568-A reliability specifications are equally important and are often overlooked. Siemon connecting hardware is designed to exceed '568 reliability specifications. These specifications include electrical, mechanical, and durability requirements, and their application ensures long-lasting performance in physically demanding field environments.