# Is a NetID required for a private LoRaWAN network? What does it cost?

**URL:** <https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/is-a-netid-required-for-a-private-lorawan-network-what-does-it-cost/4696>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [January 6, 2017, 7:11pm UTC](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/is-a-netid-required-for-a-private-lorawan-network-what-does-it-cost/4696 "2017-01-06T19:11:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![johan](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/user_avatar/www.thethingsnetwork.org/johan/32/45177_2.png) [@johan](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/u/johan)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/is-a-netid-required-for-a-private-lorawan-network-what-does-it-cost/4696/4 "2017-04-10T09:39:24Z")

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> [@antonish](#):
>
> My understanding is you don’t need a NetID for private networks, and a registered NetID is needed for public networks to support roaming.

I think this is true.

A NetID allows you to issue DevAddrs your “own” range, allowing for early exit in routing. If you don’t have a NetID, you’re supposed to use 0 or 1 for testing, but everybody is doing that. This means that your network needs to check your database to see if it knows the device, and if so, doing a MIC check to see if you have the network session key.

There’s not really a functional difference between private and public networks. For roaming, you’ll need a NetID. A NetID allocation requires Contributor membership with the LoRa Alliance.

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