What Are LTE Frequency Bands?
LTE frequency bands are the specific slices of radio spectrum (identified by number, e.g. Band 3, Band 20, Band 28) that carriers use to operate their networks. Different countries — and often different carriers within the same country — are licensed to operate on different band combinations. A cellular modem must support the specific band a network is using at a given location in order to connect at all.
LTE Band Reference Table
The table below lists the LTE bands used by Mictrack GPS trackers, with uplink (device transmit) and downlink (device receive) ranges as defined by 3GPP. All of these bands are FDD (frequency division duplex). This is not the full 3GPP list: LTE also defines other FDD bands and TDD bands such as B38 – B41, which are outside the band set Mictrack specifies for these models.
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| Band | Frequency (MHz) | Common Name | Uplink (MHz) | Downlink (MHz) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | 2100 | IMT | 1920 – 1980 | 2110 – 2170 |
| B2 | 1900 | PCS | 1850 – 1910 | 1930 – 1990 |
| B3 | 1800 | DCS | 1710 – 1785 | 1805 – 1880 |
| B4 | 1700/2100 | AWS-1 | 1710 – 1755 | 2110 – 2155 |
| B5 | 850 | Cellular | 824 – 849 | 869 – 894 |
| B7 | 2600 | IMT-E | 2500 – 2570 | 2620 – 2690 |
| B8 | 900 | Extended GSM | 880 – 915 | 925 – 960 |
| B12 | 700 | Lower 700 (A/B/C) | 699 – 716 | 729 – 746 |
| B13 | 700 | Upper 700 (C) | 777 – 787 | 746 – 756 |
| B18 | 800 | Lower 800 (Japan) | 815 – 830 | 860 – 875 |
| B19 | 800 | Upper 800 (Japan) | 830 – 845 | 875 – 890 |
| B20 | 800 | Digital Dividend (EU) | 832 – 862 | 791 – 821 |
| B26 | 850 | Extended Cellular | 814 – 849 | 859 – 894 |
| B28 | 700 | APT | 703 – 748 | 758 – 803 |
| B66 | 1700/2100 | Extended AWS | 1710 – 1780 | 2110 – 2200* |
* B66 downlink 2180 – 2200 MHz is restricted to carrier aggregation use. B13 and B20 are reverse-duplex bands: the uplink sits above the downlink. Band ranges reviewed October 2026 against 3GPP TS 36.101 V19.6.0 (E-UTRA operating bands).
Why Band Compatibility Matters for Deployment
For GPS tracker deployments spanning multiple countries or carriers, band compatibility is a hard technical requirement, not a nice-to-have — a device with excellent battery life and a well-designed antenna will still fail to connect if its modem doesn't support any band the local network operates on. Hardware selection for multi-region fleets therefore needs two checks: which technology the local carriers actually offer (LTE-M, NB-IoT, or standard LTE for 4G LTE Cat 1 bis), and whether the device supports the bands that technology runs on.
For LTE-M & NB-IoT trackers, a band match is necessary but not sufficient. The carrier must also have deployed LTE-M or NB-IoT on that band at the deployment site — the two are launched separately, many operators offer only one of them, and coverage does not necessarily mirror a carrier's general 4G map. Our list of global LTE-M & NB-IoT commercial networks shows which operators have launched each technology, by country and band.
Two further points matter for multi-country fleets. LTE-M & NB-IoT roaming depends on agreements between operators, and power-saving timers (PSM and eDRX) are requested by the device but granted by each network, which affects battery life — confirm both with your SIM provider for every country. MT700 and MT710 also fall back to 2G GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) where local operators still run 2G; the 4G LTE Cat 1 bis models have no 2G fallback.
How Band Usage Varies by Region
Band numbers and frequency ranges are defined by 3GPP and rarely change once published; 3GPP adds new bands over time, and a country may license only part of a band, but the ranges themselves do not vary by country or carrier. What does change is which bands each carrier operates in each country, as carriers refarm spectrum and expand LTE-M & NB-IoT rollouts — so this article does not publish a per-country carrier list, which would quickly go stale. As general patterns:
- Some bands are widely reused across many countries and carriers, making them useful defaults for broad-coverage hardware.
- Other bands are more region- or carrier-specific, and hardware intended for that specific market is typically tuned accordingly.
- Mictrack's LTE-M & NB-IoT models cover 13 bands in a single band variant, while the 4G LTE Cat 1 bis models ship in two regional variants (EU and LA) — see our cellular technology comparison for the tradeoffs between the technologies.
Band Support by Mictrack Model
The 4G LTE Cat 1 bis models ship in two band variants: the EU-band variant for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, and the LA-band variant for North and Latin America.
| Band | LTE-M & NB-IoT (MT700, MT710) |
4G LTE Cat 1 bis EU (MT700L, MT710L) |
4G LTE Cat 1 bis LA (MT700L, MT710L) |
|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| B2 | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| B3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| B4 | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| B5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| B7 | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| B8 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| B12 | ✓ | — | — |
| B13 | ✓ | — | — |
| B18 | ✓ | — | — |
| B19 | ✓ | — | — |
| B20 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| B26 | ✓ | — | — |
| B28 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| B66 | — | — | ✓ |
The authoritative source for which bands a specific Mictrack model supports is that model's own datasheet or catalog, linked from each product page and in the Downloads section — see MT700, MT710, MT700L and MT710L. Always confirm band support against the datasheet or catalog for your specific model and hardware revision before ordering.
Confirming Compatibility Before You Deploy
Before a multi-region rollout, confirm with your carrier or IoT SIM provider which bands have LTE-M, NB-IoT or standard LTE (for 4G LTE Cat 1 bis) active at each deployment location, then cross-check against the tables above and the product datasheet or catalog. Our global LTE-M & NB-IoT APN list can help when setting up SIMs. For deployments spanning several countries, contact our engineering team — we can help match hardware to your specific regional footprint.
