Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider

Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider

Telecom and Internet Service Providers operate in markets where usage varies drastically from one customer to another. While flexible, usage-based models align revenue directly with consumption, they also introduce operational challenges like real-time tracking, precise rating, and transparent invoices.


Many providers still see these models as complex to automate. But the reality is that the right billing infrastructure can turn this complexity into a scalable, data-driven process. Zoho Billing offers that infrastructure, which is adaptable enough for both ISPs and telecom service providers to manage millions of usage events daily.

Below are two scenarios that show how Zoho Billing supports usage billing models in these industries.

Scenario 1:  

A regional internet service provider, having 25,000 residential customers and 3000 small businesses, decided to move away from the traditional fixed monthly broadband plan. They let the customers pay entirely based on how much data they consume rather than setting up a standard base fee. The structure is simple,

  • $0.40 per GB for the first 500 GB

  • $0.30 per GB for the next 500 GB

  • $0.20 per GB beyond that.

This model gives customers flexibility while ensuring revenue reflects actual network usage. To make this model work,

  1. The ISP (Internet Service Provider) must capture live data usage from its network monitoring system.

  2. Rate the usage according to defined tiers.

  3. Generate accurate invoices each billing cycle without manual calculation.

 With Zoho Billing, a usage-based pricing engine, and API integration, the ISP connected its network management platform directly to its billing system. Every gigabyte consumed by a customer was sent as a real-time usage record.


In Zoho Billing, the ISP once defined usage tiers and rates. The system automatically applied those rates at the end of each billing cycle, calculating charges based on total consumption.

Let's take a residential broadband plan with three users sharing one data pool. Total monthly usage is recorded as 1.28 TB (~1,280 GB)

Item

Value

Total Usage

1,280 GB

Tier 1: 500 GB x $0.40

$ 200

Tier 2: 500 GB x $0.30

$150

Tier 3: 280 GB x $0.20

$56

Total Invoice Value

$406

 
The invoices were then generated automatically, including a detailed usage summary. The customer could view their live usage within the client portal through data fed directly from the same APIs, providing transparency throughout the month.


Scenario 2:  

A telecom operator runs a postpaid service where users subscribe to a base plan, and the customer pays for additional voice and message usage. It has a strong customer base of over 120,000 postpaid subscribers. The base plan costs $50, covering 100 minutes of domestic and 50 international calls and 100 SMS. Additional usage costs:

  • $0.05 per minute for local calls.

  • $0.10 per minute for international calls.

  • $0.01 per SMS

Managing this type of billing requires:

  1. High-volume usage capture from the telecom mediation system.

  2. Accurate categorization of usage (local vs international calls, SMS).

  3. Real-time rating to prevent discrepancies.

  4. Generation of detailed transparent invoices.

Since the telecom operator handles millions of call records monthly, even small inefficiencies could lead to significant revenue leakage.


Zoho Billing was integrated directly with the Call Detail Record (CDR) system via API. As calls and SMS were logged, corresponding usage data was pushed automatically to Zoho Billing, categorized by type. Each usage metric, such as local minutes, international minutes, and SMS, was mapped to the respective price brackets. The platform automatically applies rates and calculates the total charges at the end of each billing period.

Let's take a subscriber who makes 780 minutes of local calls, 90 minutes of international calls, and 310 messages in a billing cycle.

Items

Rate

Amount

Base Plan

$50

$50

Extra domestic calls 680 minutes

$0.05

$34

Extra international calls 40 minutes

$0.12

$4.8

Extra 210 SMS sent

$0.01

$2.1

Total Invoice Value

$90.9

 
The invoice generated through Zoho Billing gives a clear usage summary. This transparency strengthens customer confidence and reduces disputes over billed usage. Telecom providers maintained their pricing structure with minimal billing overhead, scaling up new offerings without changing their core system.


Potential Shift 
Across the connectivity industry, usage-based billing is becoming the new standard. Success depends on a system that can manage continuous usage flow, accurately rate customers, and clearly communicate with them.

Zoho Billing enables this transformation by providing an adaptable billing infrastructure that handles real-world complexities with built-in handlers. This allows industry experts to focus on innovation and not manual reconciliation. It helps service providers manage the full lifecycle of usage-based revenue with reliability and precision.


NotesAs we drive across industries in each post, the next sector, the next post will be on Usage Billing in Logistics & Delivery. 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

      Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

    • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

      • Recent Topics

      • Feature Request - The Ability to Link A Customer with a Vendor

        Hi Finance Suite Team, Many businesses buy and sell products from the same companies or individuals. For example, a car sales business may buy a car from a member of the public, and that member of the public may also buy a new car from us. This makes

      • Long table name (sync from Zoho Creator)

        Dears, How can I remove the suffix in parentheses? These tables are synced from Zoho Creator and are treated as system tables, so their names cannot be changed. This issue makes the aggregation formulas look awful.

      • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - Streamlining incident management process with Zoho Creator

        Hello everyone, We’re excited to invite you to another edition of the Learning Table Series webinar. As you may already know, we've moved to a purpose-based approach in the Learning Table Series this year. Each session now focuses on how a Zoho Creator

      • Unattended - Silent

        How can I hide the tray icon / pop up window during unattended remote access for silent unattended remote access?

      • Importing into Multiselect Picklist

        Hi, We just completed a trade show and one of the bits of information we collect is tool style. The application supplied by the show set this up as individual questions. For example, if the customer used Thick Turret and Trumpf style but not Thin Turret,

      • Text snippet

        There is a nice feature in Zoho Desk called Text Snippet. It allows you to insert a bit of text anywhere in a reply that you are typing. That would be nice to have that option in Zoho CRM as well when we compose an email. Moderation Update: We agree that

      • Marketing Tip #18: Make your online store mobile-friendly to improve traffic

        Most online shoppers browse on their phones first. If your store is hard to read, slow to load, or tricky to navigate on mobile, they’ll bounce fast. A mobile-friendly store doesn’t just look nice; it improves engagement, reduces drop-offs, and helps

      • [Need help] Form closed. Please contact your form administrator for further assistance.

        https://forms.zohopublic.com/cceinfoifly1/form/CCE2025CCEFocusGroupRegistrationForm2025Fall/formperma/s_8XcLETTbFxZ_TAS4r_W6W5UBl8o5oxEnIX35IBKg4 I checked we didn't exceed the usage limit and form availability is enabled, Please help us enable this form

      • Zoho People. Updating TabularData

        I am trying to update tabular data in the record. I always have the same response. I have checked many times. Section ID is correct. May be something wrong with request structure itself. Can someone help me. Body content type: form urlencoded query params

      • Automatically CC an address using Zoho CRM Email Templates

        Hi all - have searched but can't see a definitive answer. We have built multiple email templates in CRM. Every time we send this we want it to CC a particular address (the same address for every email sent) so that it populates the reply back into our

      • Unable to Send Different Email Templates for Different Documents in Zoho Sign

        Hello Zoho Community, I am facing a limitation with Zoho Sign regarding email notifications sent to customers when a document is sent for signing. Currently, whenever I send any template/document for signing, the email notification that goes to the customer

      • Reminder needs 0 minute choice

        I most use 0 minute reminders.  Every other calender service has this choice.  If I create an event in my Android calendar with 0 minute reminder it will change to 5 minute.  Please ad 0 as a reminder choice, this should be a 5 minute fix.  Thanks.

      • Customer ticket creation via Microsoft Teams

        Hi all, I'm looking to see if someone could point me in the right direction. I'd love to make it so my customers/ end users can make tickets, see responses and respond within microsoft teams. As Admin and an Agent i've installed the zoho assist app within

      • Is there a way to update all the start and end dates of tasks of a project after a calendar change?

        Hi! Here's my situation. I've built a complete project planning. All its tasks have start dates and due dates. After completing the planning, I've realized that the project calendar was not the right one. So I changed the project calendar. I now have

      • How to update task start date when project start date changes?

        Hi there, When the start date of a project changes, it's important to update the start dates of the tasks associated with that project to reflect the new timeline. Is there a way to shift the start date of all project tasks when the start date of a project

      • Issue with Picklist Dropdown Not Opening on Mobile

        Hello I am experiencing an issue with picklist values on mobile. While the arrow is visible, the dropdown to scroll through the available values often does not open. This issue occurs sporadically, it has worked occasionally, but it is very rare and quite

      • using the client script based on the look up filed i wnat to fetch the record details like service number , service rate

        based on selected service look up field iwant to fetch the service serial number in the serice form how i achive using client script also how i get the current date in the date field in the on load of the form

      • Zoho Books/Square integration, using 2 Square 'locations' with new Books 'locations'?

        Hello! I saw some old threads about this but wasn't sure if there were any updates. Is there a way to integrate the Square locations feature with the Books locations feature? As in, transactions from separate Books locations go to separate Square locations

      • Zoho Commerce - How To Change Blog Published Date and Author

        Hi Commerce Team, I'm discussing a project with a client who wants to move from Woo Commerce / Wordpress to Zoho Commerce. They have around 620 blog posts which will need to be migrated. I am now aware of the blog import feature and I have run some tests.

      • Does zoho inventory need Enterprise or Premium subsrciption to make Widgets.

        We have Zoho One Enterprise and yet we can't create widgets on inventory.

      • Handling Agent Transfer from Marketing Automation Journey to SalesIQ WhatsApp

        We are currently using Marketing Automation for WhatsApp marketing, and the features are great so far We have a scenario where, during a campaign or journey, we give customers an option to chat with our sales team. For this, we are using SalesIQ WhatsApp

      • Comment to DM Automation

        Comment to DM automation feature in Zoho Marketing Automation, similar to what tools like ManyChat offer. Use case: When a user comments on a social media post (Instagram / Facebook), the system should automatically: Send a private DM to the user Capture

      • ZMA shows as already connected to Zoho CRM, but integration not working

        When I try to connect ZMA with Zoho CRM, it shows as already connected, but the integration doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve attached the screen recording for reference.

      • Automatic Email Alerts for Errors in Zoho Creator Logs

        Hello, We would like to request a feature enhancement in Zoho Creator regarding error notifications. Currently, Zoho Creator allows users to view logs and errors for each application by navigating to Zoho Creator > Operations > Logs. However, there is

      • Recurring Automated Reminders

        Hi, The reminders feature in Zoho Books is a really helpful feature to automate reminders for invoices. However, currently we can set reminders based on number of days before/after the invoice date. It would be really helpful if a recurring reminder feature

      • Workflow Rule - Field Updates: Ability to use Placeholders

        It will be great if you can use placeholder tags to update fields. For example if we want to update a custom field with the client name we can use ${CONTACT.CONTACT_FIRSTNAME}${CONTACT.CONTACT_LASTNAME}, etc

      • Zobot Execution Logs & Run History (Similar to Zoho Flow)

        Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, We would like to request an enhancement for Zoho SalesIQ Zobot: adding an execution log / run history, similar to what already exists in Zoho Flow. Reference: Zoho Flow In Zoho Flow, every execution is recorded in the History tab,

      • Password Assessment Reports for all users

        I'm the super admin and looking at the reporting available for Zoho Vault. I can see that there is a Password Assessment report available showing the passwords/weak and security score by user. However I'm confused at the 'report generated on' value. Monitor

      • Can't change form's original name in URL

        Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

      • Setting certian items to be pickup only

        How do we have some items that are pickup only? I have several items in my item's list that I do not ship. But they need to be on the website to be sold, and picked up in store. Need to be able to do this as one of these products is a major seller for

      • Using gift vouchers

        We would like to be able to offer a limited number of gift vouchers, of varying values, to our customers, and are looking for the best way to do this. We have looked at Coupons and Gift Certificates, but neither seem to fit the bill perfectly. Coupons:

      • Automatically updating field(s) of lookup module

        I have a lookup field, which also pulls through the Status field from the linked record. When the lookup is first done, the Status is pulled through - this works perfectly. If that Status is later updated, the lookup field does not update as well. As

      • Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

        We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to

      • Adding custom "lookup" fields in Zoho Customization

        How can I add a second “lookup” field in Zoho? I’m trying to create another lookup that pulls from my Contacts, but the option doesn’t appear in the module customization sidebar. In many cases, a single work order involves multiple contacts. Ideally,

      • Can you import projects into Zoho Projects yet?

        I see some very old posts asking about importing project records into Zoho Projects. But I can't find anything up to date about the topic. Has this functionality been added? Importing tasks is helpful. But we do have a project where importing projects

      • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

        Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could

      • Zoho Inventory. Preventing Negative Stock in Sales Orders – Best Practices?

        Dear Zoho Inventory Community, We’re a small business using Zoho Inventory with a team of sales managers. Unfortunately, some employees occasionally overlook stock levels during order processing, leading to negative inventory issues. Is there a way to

      • Automation #10 - Auto Assign Ticket based on Keywords

        This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips on optimizing

      • Automate attendance tracking with Zoho Cliq Developer Platform

        I wish remote work were permanently mandated so we could join work calls from a movie theatre or even while skydiving! But wait, it's time to wake up! The alarm has snoozed twice, and your team has already logged on for the day. Keeping tabs on attendance

      • Reusable Custom Functions Across Department Workflows

        Dear Zoho Desk Team, We appreciate the powerful workflow automation capabilities in Zoho Desk, particularly the ability to create and use custom functions within workflows. However, we have encountered a limitation that impacts efficiency and maintainability.

      • Next Page