You may have heard the term “Cat” before when it comes to Ethernet cables (e.g. Cat 5, Cat 6), but what about when someone is talking about cellular? “Cat” refers to the category of a 4G LTE modem (5G does NOT use categories). 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a cellular technology in which both voice and data service can operate.

Categories are used to define the performance specs of the LTE device. They range from 1 to 22 and differ with regards to the frequency band support as well as the upload and download speeds they are capable of running. For example, Cat 1 modems can download at up to 10 Mbps (megabits), while Cat 22 modems are going to receive download speeds of up to 4 Gbps (gigabits).

Cat 3

Like Cat 1, the Cat 3 modems are generally carrier specific because of limited frequency band support. However, this is going to provide much faster throughput in comparison. Max download is 100 Mbps and max upload is 50 Mbps. Popular applications might be home or travel as well as small offices where only a handful of devices need to connect.

LTE Category	Max Download Speed	Max Upload Speed
Cat 1	10 Mbps	5 Mbps
Cat 3	100 Mbps	50 Mbps
Cat 4	150 Mbps	50 Mbps
Cat 6	300 Mbps	50 Mbps
Cat 7	300 Mbps	100 Mbps
Cat 11	600 Mbps	75 Mbps
Cat 12	600 Mbps	100 Mbps
Cat 15	800 Mbps	226 Mbps
Cat 18	1200 Mbps	300 Mbps
Cat 20	2000 Mbps	300 Mbps
Cat 22	4000 Mbps	450 Mbps