Hello @AndrewGifft, I should be able to work without NB-IoT (although it is desirable) and use Cat-M1. Where I am now confused is in the nature of the Hologram network. Perhaps I misread the literature here, but I thought the Hologram had agreements with carriers in ~180 countries and that one could move a specific modem & Hologram SIM (eg Nova) on the Hologram network from (supported) country to country. From the Hologram website:
One Global SIM Card
A single, hardware-agnostic SIM card and eSIM eUICC chip for 2G through LTE Cat-M globally on over 550 networks.Seamless Network Coverage
Switch seamlessly and stay connected across a breadth and depth of carriers in over 196 countries.
Looking at the linked map for LTE-M, I count about a dozen countries or so. I am not a network engineer (EE hardware design), so perhaps I have missed something critical in understanding the Hologram capabilities?
Let me know. Thank you! 
Cheers,
Mike