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

    • Reopen ticket on specific date/time

      Is there a way that we can close a ticket and setup a reopen of that ticket on a specific date and time? (without using the "on hold" ticket option)

    • API credit COQL COUNT

      The docs describe API credits in COQL from the LIMIT perspective: https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v8/COQL-Overview.html When using aggregate functions such as `COUNT` or `SUM`, is that billed as 1 API credit?

    • Anyone Building AI-Based SEO Dashboards in Zoho Analytics?

      Hey everyone, I’m currently working on an SEO reporting dashboard in Zoho Analytics and looking to enhance it with AI-based insights—especially around AI visibility, keyword trends, and traffic sources. The goal is to track not just traditional metrics

    • Weekly Tips : Save Time with Saved Search

      Let's assume your work requires you to regularly check emails from important clients that have attachments and were sent within a specific time period. Instead of entering the same conditions every time—like sender, date range, and attachments included—you

    • Remove 'This is an automated mail from Zoho Sign' in footer

      Hi there, Is it possible to remove or change the text under the e-mail templates? I can't figure out how to do that: Would love to hear from you. Kind regards, Tristan

    • Organize and manage PDFs with Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard

      Hello users, Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard is a one-stop place to upload, sort, share PDF files, and more. This article will explore the various capabilities that Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard offers. A few highlights of Zoho PDF Editor's dashboard: Upload

    • Custom function return type

      Hi, How do I create a custom deluge function in Zoho CRM that returns a string? e.g. Setup->Workflow->Custom Functions->Configure->Write own During create or edit of the function I don't see a way to change the default 'void' to anything else. Adding

    • Passing Info from Function to Client Script

      Hello, I have recently started making use of client script for buttons, allowing me to give the user information or warnings before they proceed. This is great. However, I have never quite managed to pass back any extra information from the function to

    • Drag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option

      Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice to

    • Zoho Payroll for Canada

      Is anyone else having problems getting setup for Canada?

    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

    • One Contact with Multiple Accounts with Portal enabled

      I have a contact that manages different accounts, so he needs to see the invoices of all the companies he manage in Portal but I found it not possible.. any idea? I tried to set different customers with the same email contact with the portal enabled and

    • User Automation: User based workflow rules & webhooks

      User management is an undeniable part of project management and requires adequate monitoring. As teams grow and projects multiply, manual coordination for updating users & permissions becomes difficult and can give way to errors. User automation in Zoho

    • Default Ticket View - Table?

      Guys, We mostly use the table view to queue tickets. Maybe I am missing it - but how can I set that view as 'default" for all our agents? Thanks JV

    • Zoho One IS BUGGY

      Here are some things that just don't work: - Disabling applications from certain Spaces - Adding users (probably only for me) - Renaming applications in Zoho One Portal (fixed by now) - Reordering applications in Spaces When I try to reorder: It feels

    • Merge Fields that previously worked are now giving an Error!

      Saving a URL Link button on the Deal module. The below fields used to save without issue at all, but now produce an error of "URL contains unsupported merge field!" ${Contacts.Mailing Street} ${Contacts.Mailing City} ${Contacts.Mailing State} ${Contacts.Mailing

    • Clarification on Zoho Forms 1-User Plan: Multiple Submitters and Approvers

      Question Content (Copy–Paste Ready) Hello Zoho Team, I would like clarification regarding Zoho Forms pricing and user limits. I am planning to subscribe to the ₹700/month (1 user) plan. My use case is as follows: Only 1 person (myself) will create and

    • App for Mac OS X please!

      It would be awesome to have a mail app for Mac OS X that included all the cool features such as steams, calendar, tasks, contacts, etc. Most people prefer native apps, rather than running it through a web browser. I know that we can use the IMAP, CalDAV,

    • Facing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes

      my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line space

    • Zoho Books Payroll

      How am I supposed to do payroll and pay my employees with Zoho Books? I think it's pretty strange that an accounting software doesn't have the ability to perform one of the most common functions in business; paying your employees. Am I missing something,

    • 60 Days Into Zoho - Tiktok Branding Startup -7 Questions?!

      Wsp Everybody I co-own a TikTok Branding / Consulting Startup & have been using Zoho for the past 60 days - Am now looking to make our overall operations & processes more Efficient & Effective! Curious to know how others are using the platform & what's

    • Notifications in Cliq client for Linux

      If I got it right, Cliq desktop client for Linux does not use the generally accepted notification method via org.freedesktop.Notification interface. For this reason, Cliq notifications do not look and behave as all other notifications. Is it possible

    • Report Template - How to remove page break after each record?

      Hi, We have report template for a list report. It looks good at screen. But when printing, it creates a page break after each record. How to remove the it? So we can print multiple records in same page. Please look at the attached screenshots. Report Template Report Print Preview

    • Canvas templates can now be shared with different CRM organizations

      ----------------------------------------Moderated on 14th February, 2023------------------------------------------- Dear all, This feature is now open for all users in all DCs. To learn more about importing and exporting canvas templates, read our help

    • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

      I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for

    • creating an alias

      your instructions for creating an alias are wrong. there is no add alias in my mail account. also i dont have a control panel link just a settings link how do i really make an alias

    • Reply to Email for SO/PO

      Hello, We are new to Zoho Books and running into an issue. Our support@ email is our integration user. When our team is sending out PO/SO's we are updating the sender email, but for some reason many of our responses are coming back to our support@ email

    • ZOHO Payroll Canada

      Any plans on the roadmap for Canada?

    • Zoho Books Sandbox environment

      Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a

    • Multi-currency and Products

      One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There

    • Custom Module Missing from Roles & Permissions List

      Hi Zoho Community, I created a new Custom Module in Zoho Expense. The module is fully built and I can see it in the Module Builder (Settings > Customization > Modules). However, I am unable to deploy this to my users because the module does not appear

    • ZOHO Writer Folders

      Hi We would love to have ability to create folders on the left hand side. We would then be able create and store our documents within each folder Hope you can provide this feature soon ! dux.centra

    • How can Data Enrichment be automatically triggered when a new Lead is created in Zoho CRM?

      Hi, I have a pipeline where a Lead is created automatically through the Zoho API and I've been trying to look for a way to automatically apply Data Enrichment on this created lead. 1) I did not find any way to do this through the Zoho API; it seems like

    • Escalation request: organization merge and data export (Ticket [154609577])

      Hello Zoho Team, I am posting here because my support ticket has not received substantive responses through the usual channels. Summary of the issue (ongoing for three weeks): I requested assistance with a data migration and a merge of two Zoho organizations.

    • Different form submission results for submitter and internal users

      I'm looking for suggestions on how to show an external submitter a few results while sending internal users all the results from the answers provided by the external user. The final page of our form has a section with detailed results and a section with

    • Help Desk Services Solution

      I am here looking for Help Desk services solution for organization. I also searched this on many different website and found many solutions. We are bit confused to which one to choose. One of my friend suggest me this platform, and i am hoping i will

    • Formatting and slow

      Creating campaigns are difficult.  I'm fairly computer literate but some of the way Zoho Campaigns formatting works is painful.  Images fail to upload or are very slow. To top it off, syncing the contacts is a pain as well as temperamental links to create Segments. At this rate I'm afraid we might need to migrate back to Mailchimp.

    • Boost your Zoho Desk's performance by archiving tickets!

      The longer your help desk operations are, the more likely it is to accumulate tickets that are no longer relevant. For example, ticket records from a year ago are typically less relevant than currently open tickets. Such old tickets may eventually lead

    • Paste emails to create segment

      We are moving over from Mailchimp to ZOHO. However Mailchimp allows me to create a segment by pasting in emails from excel (or importing a .csv) can I do the same in Mailchimp?

    • Getting the Record ID of a form once it is submitted - so that form can be edited later

      In Zoho Forms, where can I access the record ID of a form once the form is submitted? - Record ID is not available in webhook payloads - It is not available to form fields, including in formulas - It is not available as a parameter in a thankyou page

    • Next Page