There are two kinds of LAN cable on the market that look identical from the outside: solid copper conductors, and aluminium conductors with a thin copper coating — CCA, or in the better-made version, CCAM (copper-clad aluminium-magnesium). The problem is not that CCA exists. The problem is CCA being sold as copper, at copper prices, into jobs that need copper.
Three checks at the counter
Scrape it. Strip a conductor and scrape it with a blade. Solid copper is copper all the way through. CCA shows silver-white aluminium under the copper skin.
Weigh the box. A 305 m box of 23 AWG solid copper CAT6A weighs noticeably more than the same box in CCA, because aluminium is about a third of the density of copper. If two boxes are the same size and one is light, ask why.
Read the print. Our cable is printed every metre with the part code, and the part code tells you the conductor: a 2 in the second position (WC-22xx) is pure copper, a 1 (WC-21xx, WC-11xx) is hybrid CCAM. If a cable claims to be copper and the jacket says nothing, that is itself a signal.
Where CCA is the wrong buy
Power over Ethernet. Aluminium has higher resistance than copper, so a PoE run loses more voltage and runs warmer. Long runs over about 50 m, anything feeding PTZ or heated cameras, access points on PoE+, and any job that must pass a certification test — these need solid copper.
Where WIAN hybrid CCAM is the right buy
We make a CCAM range ourselves — Spark WC-1112W and WC-1113K in CAT6, Gold WC-2117G and WC-2164K in CAT6A — and we sell it as what it is. Short data runs in homes and small offices, cost-led jobs where every point is under 50 m, temporary installations, and data-only runs without PoE. On those jobs the hybrid cable links at full speed and the client saves real money. Our CCAM uses an aluminium-magnesium alloy core, which crimps and punches down more reliably than plain CCA.
The rule
Copper where there is power or distance; hybrid where there is neither, and only when the client knows what they are buying. Both are on the datasheet, both are printed on the jacket, and both are in the Cable Finder — WI-MAN asks about PoE before he suggests either.