LTE-M

Cellular IoT module selection often falls into two traps: choosing only by price, or choosing only by peak data rate.

Real selection is a trade-off:

coverage
power
mobility
latency
data volume
cost
operator support
lifecycle

NB-IoT, LTE-M, Cat.1, and regular 4G modules serve different devices.

NB-IoT Fits Small, Infrequent Data and Deep Coverage

NB-IoT is useful for low-power, small-data, wide-coverage devices: meters, alarms, manhole covers, and environmental monitors that send small payloads occasionally.