Vodafone has announced that it has successfully carried out a VoLTE call over commercial CAT-M networkand it is an important achievement for the operator since it is the first ever made in Europe. The CAT-M network uses the 4G infrastructure – otherwise, after all, the VoLTE call would not have been possible – and among its strengths it has wide coverage, increased stability even in movement and better data transmission capacity compared to a network “traditional” narrowband for the Internet of Things, the IoT.
In the concrete, the CAT-M network offers as its main advantage an improvement in the autonomy of the (many) battery-powered IoT devices, but not even the greater stability of the signal and consequently the performance compared to other solutions should not be underestimated for certain applications. There VoLTE call over CAT-M networkonce fully operational, it will be particularly suitable for all IoT applications that require voice supportlow power consumption and low bandwidth.
Among these, Vodafone mentions theautomation of the functions of a building’s systemsi.e. the so-called building automation therefore connected elevators, fire prevention etc., the connection of wearable devices, applications of healthcare (e.g. emergency calls from teleassistance devices for the elderly), for l’automotive (think of those mechanisms that activate the emergency services in case of accidents), for the logisticsand more.
We were the first operator in Italy to make CAT-M available nationwide last June and today we announce the first Voice over LTE call on CAT-M network ever made on a European commercial network. […] The VoLTE call over the CAT-M network can be used to monitor and trace devices in the healthcare sector, for the care of the elderly, to raise the alarm in the event of an emergency even in remote and hard-to-reach places. Once again we demonstrate how our networks and technologies play a key role in connecting people and objects – said Marco Zangani, Network Director of Vodafone Italy