Cables are rated for data with a certain expectation of abuse. On a straight run, cat-5 UTP and cat-6 UTP are identical even though the former is rated for 100Mps and the latter for 10Gbps.
But if you bend them around a corner and pull the cable tight, the pairs in the cat-5 will become separated while the pairs in the cat-6 will stay mostly paired (electrons running in opposite directions create fields which negate each other, this is spoiled if the stands separate. Then the cable becomes noisy).
It would be similar with baud rates and phone lines. Probably the school's setup wasn't of the sort that could typically handle data, so the telco had offered them some kind of expensive alternative, but the installers had had a gentle touch, so it actually could handle data.
That, or the telco was just lying and trying to sell something the customer didn't need. Wouldn't be the first time that had happened.
But if you bend them around a corner and pull the cable tight, the pairs in the cat-5 will become separated while the pairs in the cat-6 will stay mostly paired (electrons running in opposite directions create fields which negate each other, this is spoiled if the stands separate. Then the cable becomes noisy).
It would be similar with baud rates and phone lines. Probably the school's setup wasn't of the sort that could typically handle data, so the telco had offered them some kind of expensive alternative, but the installers had had a gentle touch, so it actually could handle data.
That, or the telco was just lying and trying to sell something the customer didn't need. Wouldn't be the first time that had happened.