I don't want to pay the subscription for LoRaWAN™. What's the alternative?

We recommend setting up a private LoRaWAN network deployment, which is the best alternative to the classic subscription model.

It's a common misconception that LoRaWAN™ protocol is a subscription to a public network. The LoRaWAN specification describes the protocol and network architecture, but there are no constraints on how it is deployed. Flexibility is one of the key advantages of the LoRaWAN standard over competing LPWAN technologies. A LoRaWAN network could be public or private, one gateway or 1000 gateways, the size of a building, a campus, a smart city, a county, country or even global.

The LoRa Alliance™ is full of contributing companies and most have a product or service they are promoting. There are network operators offering national networks with a subscription, but there are also hardware/software/platform vendors providing everything needed to put together your own private network with off-the-shelf building blocks. You can download the standard and build everything yourself from the ground up if you have the time and investment to do it, but for most, time-to-market is the most important factor being considered.

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