For critical IoT deployments (smart city, industrial sites, fleet asset tracking), private LoRaWAN networks are often preferred over public operators: full infrastructure control, contractual SLA, stronger security and no commercial dependency on a third-party operator.

Public networks remove the need to invest in gateways and offer immediate coverage, but they bill per device on a SaaS basis (typically EUR 1-5 per device per year) and the SLA is rarely meaningful. Private networks give full control over coverage, performance and security, with a guaranteed SLA — at the cost of gateway hardware (roughly EUR 500 per gateway, with 10-20 gateways for an average smart-city deployment) and operational responsibility for the Network Server. A common hybrid approach combines private gateways on the customer site with roaming onto a public network for mobility — particularly useful for fleet asset tracking that leaves the campus.

Quote the total cost of ownership over five years rather than the up-front gateway price; in fleets above a few thousand devices, private LoRaWAN is almost always cheaper than per-device SaaS billing.