Long story short, the biggest differences between these three cable types are their transmission speed and bandwidth. Here are the performance characteristics of each: CAT5e: 100-250Mhz/1 Gbps/100 meters. CAT6: 250-500Mhz/1 Gbps /100 meters, 10 Gbps is supported under 37 meters. CAT6a: 250-500Mhz/10 Gbps /100 meters.