Cellular IoT Module Shipments Rise 15 Percent, Led by Cat 1 bis
IoT Analytics data shows first-half growth of 15 percent, Q2 accelerating to 20.9 percent, average selling prices rising for the first time in five quarters — and component lead times lengthening.
New data from IoT Analytics, published 17 September, shows global cellular IoT module shipments increased 15 percent year over year during the first half of 2026. Second-quarter growth accelerated to 20.9 percent year over year and 15 percent sequentially on the first quarter.
LTE Cat 1 bis did most of the work. Shipments of it rose roughly 34 percent year over year and accounted for 56 percent of the incremental growth, and IoT Analytics projects it at roughly 43 percent of cellular IoT module shipments by 2030. NB-IoT has fallen back from its earlier peak. RedCap and eRedCap, much discussed, remain in early commercialisation.
The price line is the one that changes buying behaviour. The blended average selling price rose 2.5 percent year over year, reversing four consecutive quarters of annual decline. Behind that sit lengthening lead times across resistors, capacitors, PCBs and memory, with memory constraints emerging specifically as a bottleneck for higher-capability modules.
Demand is coming from tracking devices, POS terminals, IP cameras and smart metering — applications that need modest bandwidth, long life and low cost, which is precisely the Cat 1 bis profile.
The supplier picture is concentrated. The top five by first-half volume were all Chinese: Quectel, China Mobile, Lierda, Fibocom and Sunsea AIoT. Chinese vendors took roughly 59 percent of shipments outside China, up from 35 percent in 2018, with Quectel alone at roughly 38 percent of international shipments.
For anyone specifying a connected product now, the practical reading is short: Cat 1 bis is where the volume and the supply security sit, and the assumption that module prices only fall no longer holds.