LTE CAT-1

LTE Cat 1 offers ideal speed, coverage, and power savings for a wide range of IoT applications.

A Reliable Choice for IoT Connectivity Needs

LTE CAT 1 offers an appealing performance balance of speed, global coverage and low power consumption that meets the needs of many IoT use cases. The combination of benefits LTE CAT 1 offers makes it an attractive, long-adopted technology for today’s IoT devices and for use cases well into the future. In spite of its long lifespan, the technology is still set to be the most widely used technology in cellular devices in 2028, according to Berg Insight.

4G LTE CAT 1 has a clear position in IoT connectivity between low power wide area cellular technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-M, and higher performance variants such as LTE Cat 4 (and higher), 5G RedCap and 5G itself.

Key LTE CAT-1 features

LTE CAT 1 provides the blend of global coverage, network performance and power saving at a cost that is viable for IoT applications.

Coverage

LTE CAT 1 coverage is present everywhere that an LTE network is available, and this provides confidence that devices will be able to connect to networks at the point of deployment.

Speed

While the time required to upload or receive 500 bytes of data on an NB-IoT is 400 milliseconds and an LTE-M device takes 40ms, a CAT1bis device can complete the same upload of data in 8ms at throughput of 500kbps, according to calculations made by Qualcomm. For applications that upload relatively small packages of data frequently, this is an attractive capability.

Power saving

LTE CAT 1 can support power saving techniques such as power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX), if these are made available by operators. These are still not commonly offered but are likely to be adopted by more operators over time. The techniques enable battery devices to achieve longer operating lives while allowing devices to optimize data communication.

Why choose LTE CAT-1 ?

LTE Category 1 was specifically developed for IoT applications. The technology was introduced as part of 3GPP Release 8 in 2008. With speeds of up to 10Mbps downlink and 5Mbps uplink, CAT 1 offers similar latency to CAT-M of less than 100 milliseconds.

LTE CAT 1 supports voice over LTE (VoLTE), making it suitable, like many other cellular variants except NB-IoT, for use cases that need voice communication.

LTE CAT 1 enables firmware over the air (FOTA) upgrades to be performed for security and other functions which NB-IoT struggles with.

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Popular LTE CAT-1 use cases

LTE CAT 1 supports both voice and mobile IoT applications and presents an appealing migration path for deployments that have previously relied on the retiring 2G and 3G networks.

Use cases include asset tracking, wearables, smart meters, point-of-sale terminals, ATMs, retail kiosks, video surveillance, connected healthcare, consumer electronic devices, other remote sensors and some vehicle telematics.

CAT1 also supports shared mobility, such as bike and scooter rentals, and sophisticated IoT devices, such as digital signage and drones and robots for deliveries.

There is an upper limit of performance that makes CAT 1 unsuitable for demanding applications. Variants of LTE, such as CAT 4 and above can be a better fit for more bandwidth-hungry use cases such as high-definition video surveillance and other real-time video applications as well as assisted driving, in-car hotspots and in-car infotainment.

The differences between LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat 1 bis and LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M)

The LTE family offers a wide range of performance ranging from LTE-M to LTE CAT4 and above. A typical comparison is LTE CAT1 vs CAT4. CAT4 offers a typical maximum downlink rate of 150Mbps, far outstripping CAT 1 performance. Power consumption of CAT 4 devices can be greater, and devices need multiple antennas which adds costs to device production.

In contrast, LTE-M offers lower hardware costs but with significantly less performance, offering download speeds of up to 1Mbps.

CAT 1 is therefore in a sweet spot that balances performance, cost and power consumption, making it appealing for the large middle-ground requirements of the majority of current IoT applications and devices.

What is CAT1 bis?

CAT1 bis, an iteration of LTE CAT1, was released in 2016 and is now gaining significant traction. Cellular module shipment forecasts from ABI Research estimate that CAT 1bis will replace nearly 70% of the CAT 1 market by 2029.

The technology has been designed to operate with a single receiving antenna which enables more compact and cost-effective devices to be manufactured while still offering CAT-1 performance. CAT1 bis can offer the same data rate, latency, roaming capabilities and robustness as LTE Cat 1. Other single antenna designs including LTE-M and NB-IoT offer throughput of under 1Mbps but CAT1bis hardware can be more expensive than LTE-M and NB-IoT devices. This means it is practical mainly for use cases that can take advantage of the higher data rate to outweigh the lower costs of LTE-M and NB-IoT.

Double-digit growth is expected for LTE Cat 1 bis according to research firm IoT Analytics. Although just 6% of the cellular IoT module market in Q1 2024 was LTE Cat1bis based, LTE Cat1bis has experienced the steepest climb in shipments in year-on-year, and the firm forecasts a continued upward trend in this regard, resulting in 14% revenue growth in 2024.

Future outlook

The demand for LTE CAT1 and LTE CAT1bis is particularly notable in applications where ultra-high-speed connectivity is not essential, such as point of sale terminals, smart meters, vehicle telematics units and asset tracking devices. CAT1 offers a balanced, efficient connectivity option with sufficient performance for many IoT and mobile applications .

Source: Berg Insights “The Global M2M-IoT Communications Market 9th Edition”, excluding China

The large number of use cases that CAT1 can be applied to and its well-established position in the market make it a popular technology for the future. Berg Insight projects in a recent report, that CAT 1 will be the most widely used technology in IoT devices in 2028 (excluding China). Even though the technology isn’t new, there is clear headroom for continued adoption for many years and it will still be a leading connectivity technology for IoT devices well into the future.

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