LTE-M or LTE-MTC ("

Long-Term Evolution In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/ EDGE and UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by ...

Machine Type Communication"), is a type of

low-power wide-area network A low-power wide-area network (LPWAN or LPWA network) is a type of wireless telecommunication wide area network designed to allow long-range communications at a low bit rate among things (connected objects), such as sensors operated on a batter ...

radio communication Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a trans ...

technology standard developed by 3GPP for

machine-to-machine Machine to machine (M2M) is direct communication between devices using any communications channel, including wired and wireless. Machine to machine communication can include industrial instrumentation, enabling a sensor or meter to communicate th ...

and

Internet of Things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

(IoT) applications. LTE-M includes eMTC ("enhanced Machine Type Communication"), also known as LTE Cat-M1, whose specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (

LTE Advanced Pro LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standa ...

), in June 2016. Competing 3GPP IoT technologies include

NB-IoT Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP for cellular devices and services. The specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro), in June 2016. Othe ...

and EC-GSM-IoT. The advantage of LTE-M over NB-IoT is its comparatively higher data rate, mobility, and voice over the network, but it requires more bandwidth, is more costly, and cannot be put into guard band portion of the frequency band for now. Compared to LTE Release 12 Cat-0 modem, an LTE-M model is claimed to be 80% less expensive (in terms of the bill of materials), support up to 18 dB better coverage, and a battery lifetime that can last up to several years. In March 2019, the

Global Mobile Suppliers Association The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) is a not-for-profit industry organisation representing companies in the mobile communication industry. GSA actively promotes 3GPP technology such as 3G; 4G; 5G. GSA is a market representation partn ...

reported that over 100 operators had deployed/launched either NB-IoT or LTE-M networks.

3GPP Narrowband Cellular Standards

Deployments

As of March 2019 the

had identified: * 60 operators in 35 countries investing in LTE-M networks * 34 of those operators in 24 countries had deployed/launched their networks

References

External links

Standards for the IoT
{{network-stub Internet of things LTE (telecommunication) Mobile technology

3GPP Narrowband Cellular Standards

Deployments

See also

References

External links