Hey IoT Creators,

As you may noticed, DT has recently completed the roll out of the LTE-M network in Germany, while other countries of DT’s footprint continue their rollout activities at the moment. LTE-M is yet another 3GPP LPWA technology, therefore we’d like to provide you with a better understanding on this network, especially when compared to NB-IoT.

Below you will find a summary of key advantages and features:

1. Like NB-IoT, LTE-M supports lower energy consumption:
   • Optimized Chipset-Design focused on relevant radio technologies (e.g. no MIMO)
   • Lower Power-Class of modules (20dBm)
   • Reduced Signaling and more efficient data transmission
   • Low-Power Features (PSM, LP-TAU, eDRX)
2. Deep indoor coverage is also applicable for LTE-M:
   • High Transmission Power Density: radio transmission over a narrow-band carrier with a spectrum bandwidth of only 1,4 MHz
   • Coverage Enhancement (CE) / Mode A and Mode B allow for message repetitions
3. LTE-M has impact on low cost of materials:
   • Half-Duplex mode supported
   • Unnecessary LTE-Features not supported (such as Carrier Aggregation, Dual Connectivity, Device-to-Device Services)
   • Intra-RAT not required (seamless transition between radio technologies, e.g. GSM, 3G, LTE)
   • Single antenna needed
4. Last but not least, hand-over between LTE-M cells is supported (intra-frequency and inter-frequency from 3GPP Rel. 14)

Application of each network technology is highly dependent on the use-cases and therefore should be carefully considered.

Have you been considering LTE-M based solutions for your projects? What of those features are important for your projects and in which of your use-cases LTE-M would be preferable comparing to NB-IoT? Shout out in the comments below and also sign-up if you want to get an early access to LTE-M in IoT Creators ‘Thing’

@Stefan-de-Lange, thanks for sharing it! Very much helpful and we will collect some more feedback in following weeks to provide for the interested users LTE-M access, so they can try currently available features

@Holger-Wech FYI https://iotcreators.com/en/lte-m-access/

@JeroenD said in LTE-M or NB-IoT, that is the question…:

HTTP(S) over NB-IoT, however T-Mobile decided to limit the messages to 512 bytes, use UDP and not to allow connections to the public internet. I think it would be nice to do HTTP(S) over NB-IoT

At least you can always do http(s) from IoT Creators portal to your application

@Jim-Hunt thanks for the comment. What exactly influenced on your conclusion that LTE-M is the way forward: any specific features or requirements for your projects? Interesting to learn more details (if you can share) https://iotcreators.com/en/lte-m-access/

@Stefan-de-Lange, thanks for sharing it! Very much helpful and we will collect some more feedback in following weeks to provide for the interested users LTE-M access, so they can try currently available features

Hey IoT Creators,

As you may noticed, DT has recently completed the roll out of the LTE-M network in Germany, while other countries of DT’s footprint continue their rollout activities at the moment. LTE-M is yet another 3GPP LPWA technology, therefore we’d like to provide you with a better understanding on this network, especially when compared to NB-IoT.

Below you will find a summary of key advantages and features:

1. Like NB-IoT, LTE-M supports lower energy consumption:
   • Optimized Chipset-Design focused on relevant radio technologies (e.g. no MIMO)
   • Lower Power-Class of modules (20dBm)
   • Reduced Signaling and more efficient data transmission
   • Low-Power Features (PSM, LP-TAU, eDRX)
2. Deep indoor coverage is also applicable for LTE-M:
   • High Transmission Power Density: radio transmission over a narrow-band carrier with a spectrum bandwidth of only 1,4 MHz
   • Coverage Enhancement (CE) / Mode A and Mode B allow for message repetitions
3. LTE-M has impact on low cost of materials:
   • Half-Duplex mode supported
   • Unnecessary LTE-Features not supported (such as Carrier Aggregation, Dual Connectivity, Device-to-Device Services)
   • Intra-RAT not required (seamless transition between radio technologies, e.g. GSM, 3G, LTE)
   • Single antenna needed
4. Last but not least, hand-over between LTE-M cells is supported (intra-frequency and inter-frequency from 3GPP Rel. 14)

Application of each network technology is highly dependent on the use-cases and therefore should be carefully considered.

Have you been considering LTE-M based solutions for your projects? What of those features are important for your projects and in which of your use-cases LTE-M would be preferable comparing to NB-IoT? Shout out in the comments below and also sign-up if you want to get an early access to LTE-M in IoT Creators ‘Thing’