What’s the difference of CATM & CAT1 ?

CATM and CAT1 are two different LTE communication standards, and their main differences lie in application scenarios and characteristics.

CATM, short for LTE-M, is a low-cost LPWAN technology developed by 3GPP as part of the LTE standard version 13. CAT-M can meet higher data rates and low latency communication. If users need to collect large files from specific IoT devices or push large updates to IoT endpoints, Cat-M is the best choice. Cat-M1 supports cell tower-based handover, making it suitable for use with mobile applications such as asset tracking and fleet management. It also supports voice functions in IoT applications.

CAT1, short for Cat-1, is another LTE communication standard designed to serve the IoT. It shrinks bandwidth and communication requirements, saving power and cost for large-scale or remote IoT systems. Cat 1 can be applied to scenarios where the bandwidth requirement is not high but there is a certain requirement for power consumption and data transmission stability, such as fleet management, wearable devices, campus water control, charging stations, smart security, smart agriculture, smart home appliances, industrial sensors, port logistics tracking, etc..

En general, CATM and CAT1 are low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies designed for IoT devices. Their main differences lie in data transmission rate and latency. CATM performs better than CAT1, but CAT1 has lower costs and is more suitable for scenarios with lower bandwidth requirements.