One point that is being missed in this discussion is the whole notion of structured cabling. The EIA/TIA specs last I looked (10 plus years ago) specified two Cat 5 cables to each drop location. This allowed for the use of Voice, Data and Video.
Cat 5 specs allow for data transmission up to 125 Mhz, and 100m ethernet runs at 80% of 125mhz, so it runs at the ragged edge of the cable. If you run ethernet over Cat 3, which is perfectly acceptable, you will only get 10m ethernet.
The whole idea on Cat 6 is to extend the limited distance that 100m ethernet can run over cat 5, which is less that 100 meters.
I could be wrong on some of the facts I'm pulling from the old grey matter, but you get the gist of it.
So, voice over Cat 3, works perfect, I would use it today with no hesitation. But, if I'm wiring my business today, I would not short change myself by running Cat 3 in place of a Cat 5 drop, as the cost of labor to replace that drop far outways the cost to put it in the first time.
If I'm running a short cable in an equipment room for voice, I'll use whatever is handiest, as cat 5 has no appreciable benefit to Cat 3.
With VOIP, and the need for QOS, the need for that second cable to be CAT 5 starts to diminish, and the CAT 3 can actually make some sense.
BTW, as long as we are being coy with each other, that picture of the telephone cable with the clear tip on it is not technically an RJ11 cable. It does only have two connectors on it, as you can see. However, a true RJ11 cable, per the standards, has a blue tip on it, which defines it as a single pair, and an RJ11. an RJ14 has an orange tip and 4 conductors. We've lost our way over the years and accept lower cost goods that no longer meet the Standards. Its no different with CAT 3 and CAT 5, we use them to meet business needs, many times ignoring standards. Which allows us to debate their usage for 4-5 pages on this thread.
It's all terminology, that we mix and match to meet our communications requirements, but much of it is not fully understood, nor interpreted correctly. EIT-TIA standards can be a source of determining where the rubber meets the road so that everyone speaks the same language.
Sounds like a good subject for the geezer section on PBX2SIP.com