As early as 2015, chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Sequans, and Altair have launched Cat.1 chips.

At that time, China's 4G construction had just begun, 2G/3G coexisted, and 4G network deployment was immature. Moreover, the speed of Cat.1 was only 10%-15% of Cat.4, but the module prices of the two were almost the same ( for example, Qualcomm MDM9207-1 chip, resulting in costs catching up with Cat.4 ), causing most mainstream module manufacturers to focus their attention on Cat.4.

Later, the price of Cat.4 modules continued to drop, while the price of Cat.1 modules remained high.

Starting from 2019, as the conditions for 2G/3G frequency reduction and network withdrawal gradually matured, ASR launched the Cat.1 and GSM dual-mode chip ASR3601/1601, and Unisoc launched the world's first LTE Cat.1 bis chip platform - Ivy 8910DM.

The price of Cat.1 modules is gradually becoming competitive.

The full name of Cat.1 is UE-Category 1. UE refers to User Equipment and Category means classification.

According to the definition of 3GPP, the Cat-X value is used to measure the wireless performance of user terminal equipment, that is, it is used to divide the terminal rate (level).

Among them, Cat.1 has an uplink peak rate of 5Mbit/s and a downlink peak rate of 10Mbit/s. It belongs to the cellular Internet of Things and is used in medium-speed cellular communication services, including vehicle positioning, wearable devices, shared devices, video surveillance, financial payment, public network intercom, and centralized power meter reading.

At the recent RAN#88e plenary meeting, 3GPP announced that the RAN6 working group responsible for GERAN and UTRAN radio and protocol work was officially closed. The RAN6 working group had previously been responsible for studying 2G and 3G radio functions.

As 2G and 3G networks are phased out, their connectivity functions will be taken over by 4G and 5G networks.

This pyramid structure reveals the distribution of cellular IoT connections:

60% of IoT connections require narrowband networks to provide services, while 30% of IoT devices with medium and low-speed services require Cat.1 or eMTC networks to provide services. Only about 10% of high-speed services require 4G Cat 4 or above or 5G eMBB to provide services.

Cat.1 and eMTC are mainly aimed at voice, medium and low speed markets. However, eMTC requires infrastructure construction, which operators may not have time to take care of.

Judging from the current development trend of cellular Internet of Things, the time has come for LTE Cat.1 to take on the main role of 4G Internet of Things connections.

According to data, the total number of 4G base stations nationwide in 2019 was 5.44 million, of which 1.72 million were newly built, accounting for nearly 32% of the total number of 4G base stations, far exceeding previous years.

The increased investment in 4G base stations has created good conditions for the development of Cat.1.

Cat 1 did not become popular suddenly. Behind it, there are multiple forces of policy and industry, which can be said to be the right time, right place and right people.

As early as January 2015, communications chip manufacturer Sequans took the lead in launching the first LTE Cat.1 chip - Calliope.

In the second half of 2015, Altair launched Cat.1 single-mode LTE chip.

In March 2016, ZTE IoT cooperated with Altair to launch the Cat.1 module product ME3610.

In the second half of 2015, Qualcomm also launched its first Cat.1 chip - MDM9207-1.

However, the promotion of these chips did not quite match the domestic market conditions at the time, and the prices remained high.

At that time, the industry's Cat.1 modules were mainly based on Qualcomm's MDM9207-1 chip, and the cost was over 100 yuan.

Four years later, in September 2019, ASR Technologies launched the Cat.1 and GSM dual-mode chip ASR3601/1601.

ASR has deep experience in Cat.4. On May 18, 2017, ASR acquired Marvell's MBU (Mobile Communications Division), and also acquired Marvell's terminal baseband chips. These products are based on Marvell's mature LTE Cat.4 and Cat.7 technologies.

At present, most module manufacturers have launched Cat.1 modules based on ASR chips, such as Quectel Communications, Domain Name Communication, SIMCom, GosuncnWelink, Xinke, Xinbit, Ruiqi, etc.

Note: Source: Internet

In November 2019, Unisoc released the world's first LTE Cat.1 bis chip platform, the Ivy 8910DM. This is the first Cat.1 custom chip, providing a more cost-effective option for Cat.1 for the first time.

Ivy 8910DM adopts 28nm mature process, supports LTE Cat.1 BIS and GSM dual-mode, with an uplink rate of 5Mbps and a downlink rate of 10Mbps. It also integrates Bluetooth and Wi-Fi indoor positioning, making the connection more stable. It also supports VoLTE and has very low power consumption.

It is understood that Unisoc currently has mature eMTC, NB-IoT, LTE Cat.1 bis, and Cat.4 product solutions. Unisoc's Cat.1 camp is also not weak.

In March 2020, Fibocom's LTE Cat.1 module L610 based on Ivy 8910DM completed China Telecom testing and was put into storage.

Currently, more than ten LTE Cat.1 module products equipped with Ivy 8910DM have been officially launched, including Longshang, Youfang, Meige, Yike, Qijun, Hezhou, etc. The Cat.1 modules of these module manufacturers have been announced to be mass-produced, and their momentum is no less than ASR.

There are reasons why Cat.1 is so popular, mainly due to several factors:

1. Mature network coverage.

The latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that by the end of 2019, the number of 4G base stations exceeded 5 million. Based on such mature LTE network deployment, the promotion of Cat.1 can complete the replacement of the old with the new without re-laying the network;

2. Internet speed higher than 2/3G.

2/3G networks have a huge market in the static IoT market, but they are not suitable for real-time voice and other business scenarios. The maximum downlink rate of Cat.1 products can reach 10Mbps and the maximum uplink rate can reach 5Mbps, which solves this problem;

3. Lower cost than 4G.

Although Cat 4 and above solutions support high speeds, their cost prices are generally high for the IoT industry. The high integration of Cat.1 provides customers with the best cost-effectiveness;

4. Low power consumption. The chip complexity on the terminal side is reduced (using a dedicated Cat.1 chip with a simpler hardware architecture), which can effectively reduce power consumption. (According to Quectel Communications, its Cat.1 module consumes 50% less power than Cat.4 in idle mode and 50% less power than Cat.4 in working mode.)

Cat.1 Disadvantages:

1. There are few chip manufacturers at this stage

Qualcomm is the main player abroad, with Sequans and Altair as a supplement. Spreadtrum and Aotek are the main players in China.

2. The current price is high

In June 2016, Qualcomm's IoT chip was adopted by more than 60 OEM manufacturers around the world and won more than 100 product designs, which shows Qualcomm's strength in the Cat.1 field at that time.

In the Cat.4 era, most of the Cat.1 modules promoted by domestic module manufacturers were based on Qualcomm chip solutions. But now, as can be seen from the above picture, the choice of module manufacturers in 2020 is mainly based on the choice between Spreadtrum and ASR, which has become a competition between the two major domestic manufacturers.

How Spreadtrum and ASR play their cards will largely determine the direction of this market.

Recently, China Unicom Internet of Things Co., Ltd. issued a bidding announcement for the Cat.1 chip centralized bidding project (second time), intending to purchase 5 million sets of Cat.1 chips, but also set a maximum price of US$3.9 per set.

As Cat.1 shipments continue to increase, its cost may drop to a level similar to that of NB-IoT modules, which is expected to happen next year.

Will Cat.1 replace NB-IoT? Are the two competing or complementary? There is still much controversy surrounding these issues. In any case, Cat.1 has indeed squeezed eMTC.

▼Cat.1 chips, modules, and product lists

Note: Source: No. 1 Xinwen Road, compiled and mapped

Note: This article is reprinted from "No. 1 Xinwen Road" and was first published on July 21, 2020.

Reference: Cat.1 is popular? Where did it come from?