Can you use Cat 5 wire for telephone?
Also, can you use Cat 6 wire for telephone?
There would be no advantage to using CAT6 with a phone. We know that CAT6 can transfer data at higher speeds but the real question is will the network equipment send the data at speeds about 1000mbps. If the answer is no there would be no benefit from using CAT6.
Simply so, can telephone wire be used for Ethernet?
No. Phone wire is Cat3, it's quality is much too low to support modern Ethernet (which requires Cat5 or higher). HPNA adapters can use phone lines to tranmit 802.3 frames; but WiFi would be much cheaper.
Network cables are usually thicker and rounder than a telephone cable. Network cables, including Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, etc., are twisted pair cables for carrying signals in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet. While phone cables are narrower and flat, and are made up of four wires.