UTP means unshielded Twisted Pair
UTP is a cable with wires that are twisted around each other, the spins cause less interference between the wires. The UTP cable has no protection or isolation that have STP (shielded twisted pair) cables though. Universal Twisted Pair is often used as a term. In the past, UTP cables were used only for data networks, but it can also be used as a telephone cable, for an alarm system or for the thermostat. UTP Cabling has several quality categories: the higher the category the faster you can send data via cable. Commonly used UTP cables are CAT5 or CAT6.