LTE CAT1 is a low and medium-speed LTE standard for IoT applications and Wi-Fi Etherent enabled devices to request low throughput. It’s part of 3GPP Release 8 and available worldwide. LTE CAT1 mobile modem offers 10Mbps download speed and 5Mbps upload speed with a latency of 50 to 100 milliseconds. It uses up to 20 MHz of bandwidth in full-duplex mode and supports tower handoff.
LTE CAT1 router offers full accessibility to 4G mobile networks and supports downgrade to 2G/3G networks. In addition, the LTE CAT1 router has lower data usage and power consumption than higher LTE categories routers. Therefore, it’s a good choice for use cases like IoT sensors, wearable devices, POS terminals, vending machines, ATMs, asset trackers, smart meters, etc.
The LTE CAT1 router supports global coverage, lower latency, data streaming, half-duplexing, and mobile tower handoff compared with other IoT-specific technologies, including NB-IoT and LTE-M. However, LTE CAT1 consumes more power and has a shorter signal range; therefore, the LTE CAT1 router is best suited to PoE or DC power sources rather than batteries.
