This paper focuses on assessment and design of transmission systems for distribution of digital signals over standard Category-7A copper cables at speeds beyond-10Gbps. The main contribution of this paper is on the technical feasibility and system design for data rates of 40 and 100Gbps over copper. Based on capacity analysis and rate optimization algorithms, system parameters are obtained and the design implementation trade-offs are discussed. Our simulation results confirm that with the aid of Decision-Feedback Equalizer and powerful coding techniques, e.g., TCM or LDPC code, 40Gbps transmission is feasible over 50m of CAT-7A copper cable. These results also assure that 100Gbps transmission can be achieved over 15m cables.