What is WISP billing software?
A WISP bills the same way any internet provider does: recurring plans, one-time install fees, credits, taxes and surcharges, payments, and a dunning process for accounts that fall behind. WISP billing software does all of that and then acts on the network, because in fixed wireless the billing system is usually what tells the network who is allowed online.
That is why most operators end up buying ISP management software rather than a billing tool on its own. The same record that holds the invoice also holds the plan speed, the installed radio, the tower and sector serving the address, and the tickets the subscriber has opened. When those live in separate systems, someone spends every month-end reconciling them.
What is different about billing a fixed wireless network?
Five things shape a WISP’s billing requirements more than they shape a fiber operator’s:
- Service areas are towers and sectors
- Subscribers are grouped by the access point or sector that serves them, not by a street or a fiber node. Outages, capacity problems and upgrades all follow that grouping, so the subscriber record needs to know it.
- Access is authorized through RADIUS
- Plans, speeds and suspensions are usually enforced by a RADIUS server. A billing event that cannot reach RADIUS has to be carried out by hand.
- Equipment sits on the roof
- Each subscriber has CPE that has to be tracked from warehouse to address, and often managed remotely through TR-069.
- Every install is a truck roll
- Installs need a site survey, line of sight and a mounted radio. A missed appointment costs a truck roll and delays the first invoice.
- Outages come in clusters
- Weather, interference and line-of-sight problems take out a sector at a time, and the phones ring all at once. Support load is spiky in a way billing staff feel directly.
Which features should a WISP insist on?
Use this as a scorecard on vendor calls. Ask to see each one working, not listed on a slide.
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
Does suspension and reconnection run through RADIUS automatically? If a person has to flip service by hand, late-night and weekend payments wait until Monday. | If a person has to flip service by hand, late-night and weekend payments wait until Monday. |
Is each subscriber tied to a tower, access point or sector? Without it you cannot see which accounts an outage touches, or credit them fairly. | Without it you cannot see which accounts an outage touches, or credit them fairly. |
Does inventory follow CPE from warehouse to address? Radios are expensive, and unreturned equipment is a quiet, recurring loss. | Radios are expensive, and unreturned equipment is a quiet, recurring loss. |
Can plans and speed changes push to the network from the billing record? An upgrade that bills but does not provision becomes a support ticket. | An upgrade that bills but does not provision becomes a support ticket. |
Are USF, E911 and sales tax handled for the services you sell? Surcharge mistakes stay invisible until an audit or a complaint. | Surcharge mistakes stay invisible until an audit or a complaint. |
Can subscribers pay by text and card, reconciled automatically? The fastest reconnection starts with the fastest payment. | The fastest reconnection starts with the fastest payment. |
Is there a parallel billing cycle before cutover? It is the only proof the new system bills your base correctly. | It is the only proof the new system bills your base correctly. |
How should suspension and reconnection work over RADIUS?
The goal is that nobody touches it. You set the rules once: how many days past due, what grace period, which accounts are exempt. From then on the billing system sends reminders, suspends the account through RADIUS when the rules say so, and restores it when the payment is confirmed.
Restoring quickly depends on the network honoring the change mid-session. Many setups use a RADIUS Change of Authorization so the subscriber does not have to reboot the radio or wait for a session to expire. Ask vendors how their reconnection reaches your equipment, and how long it takes end to end.
- DueSep 01
- ReminderSep 08
- SuspendedSep 15
- Paid via linkSep 18 14:02
- ReconnectedSep 18 14:04
Reconnection should fire on a confirmed payment, not on a promise to pay. That rule is what makes it safe to automate.
How do you handle outages by sector?
When a sector goes down, the first signal is rarely a monitoring alert that everyone reads. It is a burst of calls and texts from the same service area. If contacts are tied to the subscriber record, and the record knows the sector, those calls can be grouped as they arrive and flagged as one incident instead of forty separate tickets.
Zone 07 flagged. Ninety-four contacts from one service area in nine days, clustered before a single one was filed as an outage.
The same grouping pays off in billing. Outage credits can go to the accounts that were actually affected, and the support team can answer with the incident already known instead of troubleshooting each caller’s CPE.
Which taxes and surcharges apply to a WISP?
It depends on what you sell and where. Broadband internet access is treated differently from voice, so a WISP that sells internet only has a different tax picture from one that also sells phone service. Surcharges such as the Universal Service Fund and E911 fees generally attach to voice services, and state and local rules vary.
What your billing software needs to do is apply the right line items to the right invoices automatically, and keep them consistent every cycle. What it cannot do is decide your obligations for you. Confirm what applies to your services with a telecom tax advisor.
When should a WISP move off spreadsheets, and how?
Around 1,500 subscribers, spreadsheets plus accounting software still work. Somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000, a missed invoice or a forgotten reconnection starts costing more than the software would. Many WISPs cross that line while growing tower by tower, without a single moment that forces the decision.
A migration that doesn’t interrupt billing looks like this:
- 1.Move subscribers, contracts, balances and equipment across, and verify every record against the live base.
- 2.Configure plans, billing cycles, dunning rules and provisioning.
- 3.Run one full cycle in parallel with the current system. Nothing cuts over until it matches.
- 4.Go live with the first complete cycle issued in the new system.
With Inerxia this takes four weeks to the first full cycle, with migration, training and support included.
Where does Inerxia fit for a WISP?
Inerxia’s platform bills fixed wireless and fiber from the same subscriber record, with RADIUS and TR-069 provisioning for wireless and OLT/GPON for fiber. Suspension and reconnection run on your dunning rules, and the billing agent texts your payment link, so when your processor confirms the payment, service comes back without a call.
On top of the record, AI agents answer the calls and texts that spike during an outage, and Subscriber Intelligence clusters contacts by issue and service location so a sector fault surfaces early.
To be plain about the trade-off: Splynx has deeper packet-level network tooling for wireless operators. If traffic shaping and network management are your main requirement, weigh that carefully.