a first column of electrical contacts comprising a first arrangement of differential signal pairs separated from one another by first ground contacts;

a second column of electrical contacts comprising a second arrangement of differential signal pairs separated from one another by second ground contacts, wherein one differential signal pair in the second arrangement of differential signal pairs is a victim differential signal pair; and

a third column of electrical contacts comprising a third arrangement of differential signal pairs separated from one another by third ground contacts,

wherein (i) the second column is adjacent to the first column, and the third column is adjacent to the second column; (ii) the connector is devoid of metallic plates between the first arrangement of differential signal pairs in the first column and the second arrangement of differential signal pairs in the second column, and between the second arrangement of differential signal pairs in the second column and the third arrangement of differential signal pairs in the third column; (iii) the first arrangement of differential signal pairs in the first column are spaced apart from the second arrangement of differential signal pairs in the second column by a column-spacing distance and the second arrangement of differential signal pairs in the second column are spaced apart from the third arrangement of differential signal pairs in the third column by the column-spacing distance; (iv) each of the differential signal pairs defines a gap distance between the electrical contacts that form the pair; (v) the gap distance is less than the column-spacing distance such that differential signals with data transfer rates of 10 Gigabits/sec in six differential signal pairs in the first, second, and third columns that are closest to the victim pair produce no more than six percent worst-case, multi-active cross talk on the victim differential signal pair.