ISP glossary The words your operation runs on.

Dunning is the process of contacting customers about overdue payments in a defined sequence of escalating steps. For an internet provider that usually means reminders, a grace period, late fees, suspension of service and, once the balance is paid, reconnection. The rules are called a dunning policy, and they decide who gets suspended and when.

In Inerxia: Suspension and reconnection run automatically on your own aging thresholds, grace periods and exceptions, and reconnection fires on confirmed payment. See Operating System.

The Universal Service Fund (USF) is a federal program, administered by USAC under FCC rules, that funds communications service for rural areas, low-income households, schools, libraries and rural health care. Providers contribute based on interstate telecommunications revenue, including interconnected VoIP, and many recover that cost as a line-item surcharge on the invoice — so whether an ISP bills USF depends on what it sells.

In Inerxia: Cycle invoicing applies sales tax, USF and E911 surcharges and delivers the invoice to the subscriber. See Operating System.

E911 (Enhanced 911) is the emergency-calling system that sends a caller's location and callback number to the correct 911 answering point. Providers of voice service, including interconnected VoIP, generally collect state and local 911 fees from subscribers and remit them, which is why E911 appears as a surcharge on ISP invoices that include phone service.

In Inerxia: E911 surcharges are applied during cycle invoicing, alongside sales tax and USF. See Operating System.

Pay-by-text is a payment method in which a subscriber settles a bill from an SMS conversation, usually by following a secure payment link or confirming a saved payment method. For ISPs it shortens the path from a past-due reminder to a cleared payment, because the reminder and the payment happen in the same thread.

In Inerxia: The billing agent texts a reminder with your own payment link; when your processor confirms the payment, the platform reconciles it and restores service automatically. See Billing & collections.

ACH (Automated Clearing House) is the US electronic network for bank-to-bank transfers, operated under Nacha rules. ISPs use ACH debits for recurring subscription payments because they generally cost less to process than card payments; the trade-off is that funds typically settle within one to two business days rather than instantly.

In Inerxia: Inerxia works with the processor you already use for ACH and cards, and reconciles confirmed payments against the invoice. See Operating System.

Revenue leakage is income an ISP has earned but never collects, lost between the service delivered and the invoice paid. Common causes are services provisioned but never billed, missed rate changes, uncollected surcharges, credits applied twice and past-due accounts left active. It rarely shows up as one large error; it accumulates quietly across many small ones each billing cycle.

In Inerxia: Billing, provisioning and suspension run over one subscriber record, so what is active on the network is what gets invoiced. See Operating System.

DSO (days sales outstanding) is the average number of days it takes a business to collect payment after invoicing. It is usually calculated as accounts receivable divided by revenue for the period, multiplied by the days in that period. For an ISP, a rising DSO means cash is sitting in past-due balances instead of the bank.

In Inerxia: The billing and collections agent sends reminders, negotiates payment plans and sends your own payment links over voice and text. See Billing & Collections agent.

An OLT (Optical Line Terminal) is the equipment at a provider's central office or hub that terminates a passive optical network. It sends downstream traffic to every subscriber on a fiber port and schedules the upstream traffic coming back from their ONUs. Turning up a new fiber subscriber means configuring their ONU on the right OLT port and profile.

In Inerxia: Provisioning turns up and configures OLT/GPON devices from the same system that bills the subscriber. See Operating System.

GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network) is the ITU-T G.984 fiber-to-the-home standard. One fiber from an OLT port is split passively to many homes, sharing roughly 2.5 Gbps downstream and 1.25 Gbps upstream. It is the most widely deployed FTTH technology, with XGS-PON as its higher-capacity successor.

In Inerxia: OLT/GPON provisioning is one of the seven modules over the subscriber record. See Operating System.

An ONU (Optical Network Unit) is the device at the subscriber's premises that terminates the fiber in a passive optical network and hands off Ethernet to the home. The term is often used interchangeably with ONT (Optical Network Terminal). Each ONU is registered to an OLT port and assigned a service profile.

In Inerxia: Each subscriber record carries the installed ONU, its OLT port and its profile, next to billing and tickets. See Operating System.

CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) is any provider-managed device at the subscriber's location: the router, the ONU or ONT on fiber, or the radio and antenna on fixed wireless. Because CPE sits between the network and the subscriber, most Tier 1 support cases — slow speeds, drops, Wi-Fi problems — start with checking or restarting it.

In Inerxia: AI support agents can check CPE health on a live call and restart it remotely before escalating. See Tier 1 Support.

RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) is the protocol ISPs use for authentication, authorization and accounting of subscriber sessions. When a subscriber's equipment connects, the RADIUS server decides whether to allow it and which speed profile to apply. It is especially common on fixed wireless and PPPoE-based networks.

In Inerxia: Provisioning covers RADIUS for fixed wireless alongside OLT/GPON for fiber. See Operating System.

CoA (Change of Authorization) is a RADIUS extension, defined in RFC 5176, that lets a server change or end an active subscriber session without waiting for the subscriber to reconnect. ISPs use it to apply a suspension, restore service or change a speed profile the moment a billing event happens.

In Inerxia: When a payment clears, service moves from Suspended to Active through a RADIUS CoA, at the same moment the ledger updates. See Operating System.

TR-069, formally the CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP), is a Broadband Forum standard for managing customer equipment remotely. An auto-configuration server (ACS) uses it to configure routers, push firmware and run diagnostics without a technician visit. Its successor standard is TR-369 (USP).

In Inerxia: Provisioning manages TR-069 devices from the same system as the subscriber's plan and balance. See Operating System.

A WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) delivers fixed wireless broadband: radios on towers or rooftops beam service to an antenna mounted at the subscriber's home or business. WISPs are common in rural and hard-to-reach areas, and many now run fiber in parts of their footprint alongside wireless.

In Inerxia: Built for fiber and fixed wireless: RADIUS and TR-069 provisioning cover WISP networks, and one subscriber record does not care which medium delivers the service. See Operating System.

The Broadband Data Collection (BDC) is the FCC program through which facilities-based internet providers report where they offer service, at which speeds and with which technology. Filings are made twice a year and feed the FCC's National Broadband Map, which is used to decide where federal broadband funding goes.

In Inerxia: Every subscriber, service address and plan lives on one record, which is the operational data coverage reporting draws on. See Operating System.

A broadband serviceable location (BSL) is a home, business or other structure where fixed broadband internet access service is or could be installed, as identified in the FCC's Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric. Each location has a unique ID, and provider coverage filings and many funding programs are tied to those IDs rather than to street addresses alone.

In Inerxia: Service addresses sit on the subscriber record, and Subscriber Intelligence clusters contacts by service location. See Subscriber Intelligence.

An MDU (multi-dwelling unit) is a building or property with several separate residences, such as an apartment building, condominium or student housing. For ISPs, MDUs bring their own billing and network patterns: bulk agreements with the property owner, shared wiring or equipment in the building, and many subscribers served from one entry point.

In Inerxia: Subscribers, contracts and installed equipment are tracked per service address on one record. See Operating System.

CGNAT (carrier-grade network address translation) is a technique that lets an ISP share one public IPv4 address among many subscribers by translating addresses inside the provider's network. It stretches a scarce pool of IPv4 addresses, but can complicate things subscribers run themselves, such as hosting servers, some games and port forwarding.

In Inerxia: Subscriber Intelligence clusters recurring complaints by theme, so issues like these surface from calls and tickets. See Subscriber Intelligence.

An ACS (auto-configuration server) is the server side of TR-069: it remotely configures, updates, monitors and troubleshoots subscriber devices such as routers and ONUs. Support teams use it to push settings, upgrade firmware, read device status and reboot equipment without sending a technician.

In Inerxia: Provisioning covers TR-069 devices, and the support agent can run remote equipment actions such as CPE restarts. See Tier 1 Support agent.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is the automated phone menu that answers a call and routes it using keypad presses or spoken responses. Traditional IVR trees route callers to a queue; they rarely resolve anything themselves, which is why long menus and hold times are a common source of subscriber frustration.

In Inerxia: The Contact Center runs routing, queues and IVR, and overflow is answered by AI agents rather than hold music. See Contact Center.

10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) is the US framework for business text messaging from standard local phone numbers. Carriers require businesses to register their brand and each messaging campaign through The Campaign Registry before sending; unregistered traffic is filtered or blocked. Any ISP that sends billing reminders or support replies by SMS is affected.

In Inerxia: SMS over 10DLC is one of the channels the AI agents and the shared inbox work in. See AI Agents.

QA scoring is the evaluation of support calls against a quality scorecard — verification, accuracy, resolution, tone and compliance. Done by hand, a supervisor listens to a small sample each week; automated QA scores every call from its transcript, so coaching is based on the whole queue rather than a handful of recordings.

In Inerxia: Subscriber Intelligence scores quality on 100% of calls, not a weekly sample. See Subscriber Intelligence.

Speech analytics is software that transcribes recorded calls and analyzes them for topics, sentiment, outcomes and trends. For an ISP, it turns the phone queue into data: which issues are rising, which service areas are generating contacts, and which problems customers raise that never become tickets.

In Inerxia: Subscriber Intelligence transcribes and summarizes every call and ticket and clusters issues by theme and service location. See Subscriber Intelligence.

A truck roll is dispatching a technician to a subscriber's location for an install, repair or equipment swap. Truck rolls are among an ISP's most expensive operational events, so providers try to avoid unnecessary ones through remote diagnostics and to make sure scheduled ones happen — a missed appointment wastes the trip.

In Inerxia: Field operations agents confirm appointments, reschedule no-shows and coordinate technician windows. See Field Operations.

An SLA (service level agreement) is a commitment to a measurable level of service, such as response time, resolution time, uptime or repair window. ISPs use SLAs externally with business subscribers and internally to set targets for their support queue, with timers that show when a case is about to breach.

In Inerxia: Tickets carry assignment and SLA timers, and calls, SMS and email share one queue. See Contact Center.

AHT (average handling time) is the average time an agent spends on one contact, including talk or chat time, hold time and the after-contact work of notes and follow-up. It is a core contact-center cost metric, but pushing it down on its own can hurt resolution if agents rush cases.

In Inerxia: The account and history are on screen at connect, and wrap-up notes are written automatically. See Contact Center.

FCR (first contact resolution) is the share of customer issues resolved in the first interaction, with no follow-up call, ticket or transfer. It is one of the strongest drivers of customer satisfaction and of support cost, because every repeat contact about the same problem is work that did not need to happen.

In Inerxia: The Tier 1 support agent resolves routine cases end to end and escalates with full context when a person is needed. See Tier 1 Support agent.

Containment rate is the share of contacts an automated channel, such as an AI agent, IVR or chatbot, handles fully without transferring to a human. A high containment rate only matters if the issue was actually resolved; deflecting a subscriber who then calls back is not containment, it is a second contact.

In Inerxia: The agents aim for resolution, not deflection, and hand off to a person with the full context. See AI Agents.

Churn is the rate at which subscribers cancel service over a given period, usually expressed as a monthly percentage of the base. For ISPs it often shows up as a port-out to a competitor. Warning signs — repeated outages, billing disputes, frustrated calls — tend to appear weeks before the cancellation itself.

In Inerxia: Retention agents score churn daily and intervene weeks before the cancellation with the right offer. See Retention.

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is total recurring revenue divided by the average number of subscribers over the same period, usually measured monthly. ISPs raise ARPU through plan upgrades, add-ons such as managed Wi-Fi or voice, and by reducing discounts; it is tracked alongside churn because the two together determine revenue.

In Inerxia: Upsell agents identify plan upgrades and add-ons for each subscriber and deliver the offer in every channel. See Upselling.

OSS/BSS stands for Operations Support Systems and Business Support Systems. OSS covers the network side — provisioning, inventory, fault and performance management — while BSS covers the customer and money side: billing, CRM, orders and payments. Many ISPs run them as separate products, which forces data to be exported and reconciled between them.

In Inerxia: The Operating System puts billing, provisioning, inventory and ticketing over one subscriber record. See Operating System.

BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) is a federal broadband program created by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and administered by NTIA. It funds network deployment to unserved and underserved locations through grants run by each state and territory, and carries reporting obligations for the providers that receive awards.

In Inerxia: We say plainly that Sonar has deeper grant and BEAD reporting tooling today. See the comparison.

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a loyalty metric based on one question: how likely a customer is to recommend the company, on a scale of 0 to 10. The score is the percentage of promoters (9–10) minus the percentage of detractors (0–6), giving a number between −100 and +100.

In Inerxia: Subscriber Intelligence scores every call, customer side and agent side, rather than a weekly sample. See Subscriber Intelligence.

CSAT (customer satisfaction score) measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction or service, usually from a short survey right after a support contact. It is typically reported as the percentage of respondents who choose the top ratings, and it reacts faster than NPS to changes in how the support queue is run.

In Inerxia: Every call and ticket is transcribed, summarized and scored, so satisfaction is measured on all of them. See Subscriber Intelligence.

An MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) is a company that sells mobile phone service under its own brand while running on another carrier's wireless network. Some ISPs launch an MVNO to bundle mobile with home internet, which adds new plans, devices and billing lines to the same subscriber relationship.

In Inerxia: The upselling agent offers plan upgrades, add-ons and bundles to each subscriber in their channel. See Upselling agent.