I’m struggling to find a reliable overview of available CAT-M networks in Europe.
The GSMA has a country overview on their website, but it doesn’t seem to be accurate. For example, it states that carriers in Portugal only support NB-IoT, though LTE-M can already be used with MEO.
Is there any source available which provides accurate coverage information?
I’m mostly interested in availability in Portugal and Italy
Hi Jasper!
it may be comforting to know that you are not alone in your struggle - albeit that probably doesn’t help you much.
What I can do is to point you to a link listing LTE-M networks of which we were able to confirm interop.:
LTE Cat-M1 Bands - Docs. Please check the list from time to time for updates.
Beside that, the GSMA advises that it only adds carriers which officially announced their network to be operational. There might be others with LTE-M networks being (partly) operational without it being announced. If a network is not in our official documentation, nor in the GSMA overview, the best way to go about is to reach out to your local operator and/or test a network yourself manually.
Regarding Portugal and Italy:
We are not aware of any LTE-M network operator in Italy at the time of writing this response. MEO seems to support LTE-M in Portugal, but we haven’t tested this thoroughly. It may be that the LTE-M is not supported nationwide.
P.S.
We always recommend to configure a 2 or 3G fallback technology, in case Cat-M technology does not appear to be reliable.