Introduction
This article explains what the Cellular IoT technology package covers in IPlytics, the data sources behind it, and how customers can use it for SEP and standards analysis.
A technology package (also called a feature package) is a curated collection of patents covering a specific technology standard – for example, Wi-Fi 6, 5G, or HEVC video compression. Rather than constructing a patent search from scratch, users of the IPlytics platform can access these packages directly to immediately explore which companies hold relevant patents, how many patents exist in the landscape, and which may be essential to a given standard.
The Cellular IoT technology package covers patent and standards data for Cellular IoT technologies within the 3GPP standards database, focused on low-power wide-area, machine-type, and connected-mobility use cases. It's built for isolating and analyzing NB-IoT, LTE-M, LTE Cat 1, and C-V2X activity separately from the broader 4G and 5G SEP dataset using AI classification refined by SEP experts to identify relevant technology tags.
Please note: Availability may depend on your subscription and platform configuration.
What The Package Covers
The Cellular IoT technology package focuses on 3GPP Cellular IoT technologies and organizes the data into four technology categories.
Users can isolate standards and patent records relevant to these technologies from the broader 4G and 5G SEP dataset, supporting more focused review of declared SEPs and SEP candidates.
| Technology | What It Covers | Typical Relevance |
| NB-IoT | A 3GPP low-power wide-area network radio technology finalized as part of 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro) in June 2016, optimized for indoor coverage, low device cost, long battery life, high connection density, and low data-volume IoT use cases. | Smart meters, sensors, and asset-tracking devices requiring long battery life and deep indoor coverage. |
| LTE-M (eMTC) | A 3GPP Release 13 cellular IoT standard for low-power wide-area applications requiring moderate data rates, mobility support, extended battery life, and enhanced indoor coverage. LTE-M operates within licensed LTE spectrum and can support features such as VoLTE and firmware updates over the air. | Mobile IoT applications needing moderate data rates and mobility, such as asset tracking and wearables. |
| LTE Cat 1 | A 3GPP LTE category established in Release 8 and later extended for IoT use cases, including single-antenna operation in Release 13. LTE Cat 1 supports mid-tier IoT and M2M applications that require higher data rates or voice support than NB-IoT or LTE-M. | Mid-tier IoT and M2M devices requiring higher data rates or voice support. |
| C-V2X | A 3GPP standardized cellular communication technology for vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicle-to-pedestrian, and vehicle-to-network communication. It supports direct PC5 communication and network-based Uu communication. | Connected and autonomous vehicle communication, including V2V, V2I, V2P, and V2N use cases. |
Note on Coverage: The package explicitly excludes non-cellular IoT technologies (LoRaWAN, Zigbee)
What Users Can Analyze
- Isolate and search standards and patent records relevant to NB-IoT, LTE-M, LTE Cat 1, and C-V2X, separately from the broader 4G and 5G SEP dataset.
- Identify Cellular IoT-relevant declared SEP records and SEP candidates, using AI classification validated by SEP experts, without reviewing the full cellular SEP universe."
- Compare patent and standards activity across NB-IoT, LTE-M, LTE Cat 1, and C-V2X.
Why It Matters
Cellular IoT technologies connect devices that often need low power consumption, broad coverage, long battery life, high connection density, mobility, or specialized vehicle communication. These requirements create a standards and patent landscape that differs from mainstream LTE and 5G smartphone use cases.
Public patent-pool and known true-positive data for these Cellular IoT landscapes remain limited compared with mainstream LTE and 5G. The Cellular IoT technology package addresses this by isolating relevant declared SEP records and identifying SEP candidates within the 3GPP standards database, giving users a more focused view than working from the broader cellular SEP dataset alone.
Common Use Cases
- Licensing preparation: understand which companies appear in Cellular IoT-specific patent datasets and prepare for IoT-focused licensing discussions.
- Portfolio benchmarking: assess how a portfolio maps to specific Cellular IoT technology categories.
- Market entry and risk prioritization: support technical and legal review for products using cellular IoT connectivity, such as smart meters, asset trackers, wearables, healthcare devices, industrial monitoring systems, fleet management solutions, and connected vehicles.
Important Scope Note
| Public patent-pool or known true-positive data for these Cellular IoT landscapes is limited. Search results, filters, and scores should be used as research and prioritization inputs, not as legal conclusions on essentiality, validity, infringement, or licensing obligations. |
How To Request Access
The Cellular IoT technology package is a licensed add-on to the IPlytics Platform. Access is not included in every standard platform subscription and must be confirmed separately. Existing Cellular subscribers aren't automatically covered.
To request access, contact your IPlytics account manager or reach out to the IPlytics team here. Your account manager will confirm eligibility and arrange access.