I worked in the Telecommunications field for a few years. The differance in the "same guage wire" was astronomical. On another note to this all sometimes the "cheaper" wire is made mostly of metal strands, and NOT copper. So you get a mix of copper and steel resulting in the same guage wire as the quality stuff you obviously pay more for. The "signal" is definitely compromised when you use the cheaper stuff. My boss found out the hard way when we had a systems crash on New Years Nite and he had to go in and fix the issue.