Narrowband IoT is a cellular IoT technology defined by 3GPP that uses a single narrow carrier inside or beside an LTE band. The narrow bandwidth and heavy repetition give it a coverage advantage over regular LTE, which helps for meters in basements and sensors behind thick walls. Power saving mode and extended discontinuous reception let a device sleep for hours while remaining registered.
Compared with its sibling LTE-M, NB-IoT has lower throughput, higher latency and no voice or seamless handover between cells, so it fits stationary devices such as smart meters, parking sensors and environmental monitors. The attraction over LoRaWAN is that it rides on existing operator networks and licensed spectrum, with a SIM and a data plan instead of your own gateways. See NB-IoT and LTE-M explained.
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