What is a potential consequence of electromagnetic interference on twisted pair cabling?

Twisted pair cabling is designed to reduce susceptibility to electromagnetic interference (EMI) through its construction, which twists the individual pairs of wires together. However, when exposed to high levels of EMI, this cabling can still suffer from signal degradation, leading to increased error rates and potential connectivity issues.

The twisted pairs help cancel out electromagnetic noise to some extent, but significant interference can overwhelm the signal integrity, resulting in data loss or the need for retransmissions. This disruption can manifest as slower response times, dropped connections, or difficulty in establishing a stable network connection.

In contrast, improved signal quality or increased data transfer rates are not realistic outcomes of EMI, since interference typically undermines the reliability and clarity of the data being transmitted. Furthermore, it is not accurate to state that there would be no impact on data transmission, as EMI can indeed have detrimental effects on the performance of twisted pair cabling. Thus, the consequence of electromagnetic interference is primarily manifested as signal degradation and connectivity issues.