eMTC (LTE Cat-M1)

eMTC LTE Logo

Deployment/Frequency Band(s)

In-Band LTE, Standalone

Channel Bandwidth(s)

1.08 MHz

DL Multiplexing

UL Multiplexing

DL Rate (Peak)

1 Mbps

UL Rate (Peak)

1 Mbps

Duplex Mode

Modulation

Overview

eMTC (enhanced Machine Type Communication) is a type of LTE-M network published by 3GPP in the Release 13 specification. eMTC is a low power wide area technology which supports IoT through lower device complexity and provides extended coverage, leveraging a mobile carriers existing LTE base stations. eMTC finds its place as a (comparatively) high data rate service for more data-hungry IoT applications.

eMTC is simply an amendment to the existing LTE-M standard, with Release 13 specifying a brand new Cat-M1 UE capable of operating on a bandwidth 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 PRB's) within an existing LTE deployment, or 1.4 MHz in standalone deployment. This is a significant development from previous Release 12 specification of LTE Cat-0, which while containing a number of simplifications from conventional UE, still had to operate on standard LTE channel bandwidths.

Cat-M1 allows an extended battery life of more than 10 years for a wide range of machine type communication use cases through the use of power saving mode (PSM), Discontinuous Reception (eDRX), Cellular IoT (CIoT) control plane, and user plane EPS optimisations for small data transmission.

eMTC or LTE-M?

It is important to distinguish that eMTC is a sub-type of LTE-M network, often the two terms are used interchangeably. An eMTC Cat-M1 network is limited to 1.08 MHz channel width, and thus has a maximum data rate of 1 Mbps, whereas an LTE-M device may have a data rate up to 10 Mbps by using any existing LTE channel width. As LTE-M Cat-0 and Cat-1 are simply network-device compatibility features, LTE-M network deployments will not be distinguished from standard LTE networks in our database.

GSMA, the industry's governing body, has selected "LTE-M" as the preferred term when publicly referring to Cat-M1 networks.

Supported by all major mobile equipment, chipset and module manufacturers, LTE-M networks will co-exist with 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile networks and benefit from all the security and privacy features of mobile networks, such as support for user identity confidentiality, entity authentication, confidentiality, data integrity, and mobile equipment identification.

3GPP proposed to the ITU-R that LTE-M, along with NB-IoT, should be integrating the technologies as part of the 5G specifications, given that both technologies satisfy the 5G LPWA requirement. 5G New Radio (NR) was designed to support diverse deployment models, spectrum usage and device capabilities. One of the deployment scenarios that is supported from the start of 5G NR work in 3GPP is to allow LTE-M and NB-IoT transmissions to be placed directly into a 5G NR frequency band.

IoT Frequency Bands

The below chart depicts the number of active networks by operating frequency band. Note that these data are live and may change unexpectedly as we work to complete the database.

IoT Networks

There are 18 networks using this technology recorded.

Country: Spain
Technology: eMTC (LTE Cat-M1)
Band: No Data
Status: Planned
Displaying 1 - 15 of 18