Just back from an enjoyable three days at ISPAmerica 2026 in Atlanta, so I thought I’d share some insights I gleaned from a mixture of conferences and 1-2-1 conversations.
Firstly, WISPAmerica has been renamed ISPAmerica, as many of the members are now ISPs, having laid fiber themselves. However, WISPs remain a significant contributor to Internet access in the USA, with reportedly 2,000 providers covering 9 million subscribers.
The first keynote tackled the headwinds facing the industry including:
- Increased competition and price pressure from:
- Much improved fixed mobile wireless and the loss-leading pricing policies of mobile operators
- The threat posed by Starlink due to its low cost and good service levels
- The encroachment of fiber around the edges of rural areas
- The overbuild of fiber in urban areas
- Mergers in the mainstream telecommunications industry, such as the recently announced merger of Cox and Charter, which may affect continued access to interconnection agreements with providers who are increasingly competitors
As a result, many rural or small town operators, who were essentially the only provider in their footprint in the past, now find themselves head to head with several competitors with increased price competition and an increasingly commoditized product. And, in addition to the direct pressure on monthly subscription pricing, many reported that the large integrated telecommunications providers were often offering substantial switching welcome offers, up to US$250, due to their high LTCVs.
With increased competition making growth challenging, and with new customers reportedly costing above US$300 each, there was a marked interest in innovative retention strategies and solutions, with average churn reportedly 15%.
In some round tables, the high costs for access to poles owned by incumbents was identified, as well as the effect on the ‘poles vs holes’ strategy being determined by the access to grants rather than long term business sense.
Rather than summarize each presentation or conversation, and call out individuals, below are some of the combined highlights I took from different presentations, panels and chats:
Bundling and Upsells
Given that the competitive environment makes it harder and harder to acquire subscribers at a low entry price and then raise prices, one solution is to provide more value with a better experience by bundling and upselling.
Bundling was described as the most underused tactic to increase ARPU, and additional revenue opportunities include the connected home, security cameras, boosters for Wi-Fi, parental controls, MVNOs etc.
Opportunities for AI to spot personalized bundle potential was identified, rather than offering everyone the same thing.
Examples included identifying moments of high bandwidth use and texting to say you can get more for just US$5 a month extra. Other tactics mentioned included increasing the service provided for free at key moments, such as Superbowl weekend, and then texting to say ‘if you enjoyed this, you can keep it for US$5 a month more’.
Promotions work
Matching promotions to events like the Olympics, the Superbowl, Summer Holidays, Black Friday do work, particularly as these are occasions when network use is likely to be higher. Inevitably, AI was mentioned as a tool to identify the right promotions for each subscriber.
Word of mouth
Many providers in 1-2-1 conversations said that word of mouth was their biggest source of new business, and one memorable quote from the conferences was that “you’ll get more from making one customer with a 5 year tenure happy than from sending 1k postcards in your target area.” A presenter mentioned an example of a subscriber who had 7 adopted children, all gaming in different rooms of the house, so he provided a free upgrade, which created a super advocate for the brand who told all her friends and neighbors.
Providers should make it easy for subscribers to provide testimonials and refer friends and all conversations with customer support should remind happy subscribers that they can earn rewards by referring friends.
Offering free internet for allowing a sign to be placed in the subscriber’s front yard can be important for local awareness. Although one participant said that door knocking remained one of the most effective means to gain new subscribers in a new coverage area.
Installers and Call Centres
The importance of selling across all touchpoints was noted with the opportunity to get installers to sell by asking subscribers questions and recommending packages. That all subscriber facing staff should know that they have options to offer subscribers and that all call center contacts with happy subscribers should end with a ‘did you know that you can get [US$50] if you refer a friend?’
Home movers
A great opportunity was identified by leaving the wiring in place when a subscriber moves (although another attendee commented that you need to weather proof that wiring), as the new tenant or owner can get online almost instantly rather than wait for an install.
And incentivizing the leaver to convince the incomer to stay with the service was a great opportunity. Tactics include offering the leaver a free month if the incomer stays with the provider (provided the leaver moves to an area within your footprint), or leaving fridge magnets or signs for the front yard.
The Importance of Wi-Fi
Obviously speed was identified as a key factor, but the audience was reminded that improving the quality of the Wi-Fi in a home, with boosters and a mesh, will often have a greater impact on the subscriber’s experience than higher broadband speeds.
Selling outcomes and making an emotional connection
The audience was reminded of standard marketing principles that you should sell outcomes for your subscribers not tech or features. And that while price and speed matter, subscribers stay with brands that they identify with and think reflect their values, and where there’s trust with the supplier. For rural and small town providers, a key differentiation is being local and giving back to the community.
Ultimately all touchpoints create the brand, and important are:
- Installation times
- Uptime
- The ability to speak to a human
- Outage notifications and resolution speeds
Increasingly these factors are important:
- Sustainability
- Privacy
- Digital empowerment
- Community investment
Fighting Churn
The value of retaining existing subscribers is well known, with one commentator saying that for each lost subscriber a provider needs to recruit three new subscribers to compensate, and that an existing subscriber is more profitable as there isn’t the onboarding and set up costs.
Subscribers are most likely to leave in the first 90 days, so improving onboarding and installation is a key area to target for improvement. Using AI to achieve scalable personalization of the onboarding process was highlighted as an opportunity here.
Of course, opportunities to improve service extend beyond the first 90 days and remain relevant throughout the full subscriber lifetime. For example to improve customer support advice quality and consistency, AI can recommend the next best action, as well as to make file notes and create customer messages, to reduce the administrative burden on call center staff allowing them to take more calls.
Churn signals are everywhere, such as where subscribers who:
- Used to pay on time but start paying late
- Use less bandwidth than before
- Complain to call centers about speed and mention competitors’ names or offers
- Suffer outages
Again, AI can play a role in identifying subscribers likely to churn by analyzing call and chat center conversations and subscriber data for clues.
The easiest way to lose a subscriber is to make him or her feel unheard, particularly when there are repeated calls to customer support about the same issue. So all customer support representatives should have notes setting out the subscriber history (including why and how they came to you) and their communication preferences.
Outages are inevitable, and subscribers have less patience and are likely to look to switch providers if not resolved soon. So the emphasis should be on swift communication (although not overcommunication – a comment was made that when you go to a brand’s Facebook page and all you see are outage notifications, you feel that the service is not good) and offering something as an apology, whether a gift card or a free month. Often offering 1-2 months worth of ARPU in bill credits or gift cards was suggested as good value to keep the subscriber loyal.
The role of bundling was identified as being crucial in combatting churn, as if you sell only one service you need to be excellent at that and the more services a subscriber has with you, the more difficult it is to leave.
Power as a competitive advantage
Any interesting panel on the last day discussed how investment in renewable power solutions can be a competitive advantage. That renewable energy, like solar and wind, can greatly reduce the total cost of ownership, as well as provide a strong sustainability message, but the unpredictability of these methods required redundancy and back ups.
Key was also visibility of the network performance and how easy the network is to repair and maintain. Some environments dictated the solutions available, as some batteries cease to work below certain temperatures.
Summary
So after a very intensive few days, I feel I learned a lot more about the challenges facing ISPs and WISPs in the United States. If you have any comments or questions about the above, I’d be happy to speak with you and, of course, if you’re looking for customer acquisition and retention solutions that can help solve these issues, we have a few that we’d love to show you.