Cat 1 is an LTE communication standard designed for the express aim of servicing IoT applications. It scales down bandwidth and communication demand to save power and cost for large-scale or long-range IoT systems.
Cat-1, which also supports voice and mobile IoT applications, also offers a good migration path for 2G and 3G applications, such as asset tracking, smart meters, and other remote sensors.
Other good use cases include wearables, point-of-sale terminals, ATMs, retail kiosks, video surveillance, connected healthcare, consumer electronic devices, and some vehicle telematics data. It also supports shared mobility uses, such as bike and scooter rentals, and sophisticated IoT devices, such as digital signage and autonomous drones for deliveries.
Cat-1 isn’t fast enough to support the needs of autonomous vehicles of the future, however. For higher bandwidth needs, the LTE Cat-4 or LTE-A Cat-6 standard and can better handle video surveillance and other real-time video applications as well as in-car hotspots and in-car infotainment.
The future 5G cellular networks provide the high-speed, low-latency communications necessary to support autonomous vehicles, remote surgery in healthcare, and other high-bandwidth applications in the future.
