Unshielded Twisted-Pair cable A four-pair wire medium – composed of pairs of wires – used in a variety of networks. Each of the 8 individual copper wires in the UTP cable is covered by insulating material. In addition, each pair of wires are twisted around each other. This type of cable relies solely on the cancellation effect, produced by the twisted wire pairs, to limit signal degradation caused by EMI and RFI.