Cellular technology is a confusing area, however, to ensure customers receive the right information and the right installation it's important to understand the differences.
Summary
- "4G" and "5G" are really just marketing terms that don't have specific technical meanings, so it's best to ignore these when considering whether Observant products (or any other IoT product for that matter) will connect on your property
- Check Telstra's coverage map... or to be really sure of connectivity contact us for a cellular analysis.
- Observant products for the foreseeable future will use the CAT-M1 and NB-IoT networks, which are optimised for low-data, low-power applications.
- We expect the CAT-M1 and NB-IoT networks to last as long as other 5G services.
4G
4G refers to the 4th Generation of cellular technologies. It's what most new phones ship with and covers the way that voice, SMS and data are sent to and from your phone, but this isn't the only use of 4G. The term 4G is often used interchangeably with LTE as essentially LTE is the name of the technology standard that underpins 4G.
LTE
LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, the technology that underpins the 4th generation of cellular technologies. LTE replaced earlier 2G and 3G technologies. While you may be most familiar with LTE since that's the network your mobile phone uses for calls, texts and data in actual fact there's many more variants of LTE. Some examples include CAT-3, CAT-2, CAT-1, CAT-M1 and CAT-NB1 etc. The different 'Categories' represent cellular technologies with different data speeds, frequency spectrum, power usage and signal range.
CAT-M1 / LTE-M
CAT-M1 is a category of device in the LTE family of cellular technologies, sometimes you'll see this referred to as "LTE-M", which is the same thing, just another name.
As mentioned in the LTE section, different categories have differing data speeds, frequency spectrum, power usage and signal range. We can choose different categories depending on the trade-offs we want to make, in other words we can give some aspects up in order to gain advantages in another aspect.
CAT-M1 trades in data rate for better power efficiency and longer signal range and is therefore considered an "Internet of Things" (IoT) cellular technology. The lower data rates mean that the signal can travel further and it will take less power to do so.
What this means in the end for customers is that CAT-M1 coverage will extend further into their properties than the standard mobile phone variant of LTE. This in turn means Observant field units that are CAT-M1 capable can be installed and connected directly via cellular from more sites on the property. You'll also find field units that use CAT-M1 will generally consume less power than the equivalent 3G field unit installation.
NB-IoT / CAT-NB1
NB-IoT (sometimes referred to as CAT-NB1) is very similar to CAT-M1 in that it's designed mainly for IoT devices and therefore prioritises signal distance and lower power usage over data speeds. NB-IoT in fact goes further with this trade-off and achieves slightly more distance and lower power by using even lower data speeds than CAT-M1.
LTE capable C3s will (at least initially) only work on the CAT-M1 network, but are technically capable of NB-IoT access as well, this feature could be enabled in future with a firmware update if there's sufficient need.
5G
Similar to 4G, 5G doesn't have a particular technical meaning and is really just a broad group of "5th Generation" cellular technologies.
The main drive behind some of the new developments in 5G technologies is to further increase the data speed and perhaps even more so, the data latency. Latency is the time delay before data is transmitted, so more latency leads to a network where it takes more time for a piece of data to be transferred from one place to another. Of course this comes at a cost and 5G has very poor signal range and penetration, meaning coverage will be restrictive.
These types of high-speed, low latency technologies will mostly be useful for high data applications, like augmented reality and self-driving cars. There's no likely reason that these will be useful for monitoring or control applications of the sort that Observant field units are involved in.
Instead, as mentioned above, Observant devices are more at home on CAT-M1 and NB-IoT networks. You'll see these two network technologies (CAT-M1, NB-IoT) referred to as both 4G and 5G, depending on who you speak to.
The main thing to note is that CAT-M1 and NB-IoT will outlast other 4G services and will most likely last as long as 5G services. It's also important to know that even if you don't have 4G or 5G reception, you may still have CAT-M1 or NB-IoT. It's best to check Telstra's coverage map for these specific technologies at your property or contact us on sales@observant.net or 1300 224 688 to make sure you’re covered.