Cellular IoT Explained: NB-IoT vs. LTE-M vs. 5G and More
There’s a lot of buzz around cellular IoT. Here are the differences between Cat-0, Cat-1, LTE-M, NB-IoT, EC-GSM, and 5G — and why you should care.
The buzz around 5G — especially its relation to cellular IoT — has been growing. A quick Google search on 5G IoT brings up related articles on NB-IoT and how Verizon and AT&T are set to commercialize LTE-Cat M1 next year as well. But attempts to decode the acronyms fall short, searching “NB-IoT vs. LTE-M” just brings up confusing summaries like this:
I don’t know about you, but this didn’t help me at all. It was as if 3GPP (the group behind 3G) decided to keep out new players by overwhelming them with cryptic acronyms and esoteric technical definitions. We all know 4G is faster than 3G and 2G, so 5G is probably going to follow that trend…but Cat-1 and EC-GSM? What are those?
Fear not! After some digging, I’ve translated the technical details of each option into laymen’s terms, so you can be prepared for the oncoming wave of cellular IoT.
