An ISP billing system is the software an internet service provider uses to sell internet, collect payments and control who is online. It connects three things that every ISP has to manage: customers, money and the network.
What it does
- Plans. Defines what you sell: speeds, prices and how long a plan lasts.
- Customers. Keeps every customer's account, plan, expiry date, balance and history.
- Payments. Collects money, matches each payment to the right customer and records it.
- Network control. Lets paying customers online and handles customers whose plan has expired, usually through PPPoE and RADIUS.
- Messages. Sends reminders before expiry, receipts after payment and outage notices.
- Reports. Shows what came in, who is due, who stopped paying and what changed.
Why it matters
Without a proper billing system, an ISP's team spends its day matching M-Pesa messages, reconnecting customers by hand and answering "my internet is off" calls. Every manual step is slow, and every mistake costs money or a customer.
A good billing system makes the whole loop automatic: the customer pays, the payment is matched, the plan renews and the customer is back online, with nobody on your team touching anything.
Billing and the network belong together
In Kenya, most ISPs run MikroTik routers and sell PPPoE plans. A billing system that is connected to the network through RADIUS can renew a plan the moment payment lands, and handle expired customers by itself. A billing system that only sends invoices cannot.
What makes a billing system right for Kenya
- M-Pesa payments that settle straight to the ISP, through the bank or the ISP's own Paybill.
- A way for expired customers to pay with no data.
- PPPoE and RADIUS built in, made for MikroTik.
- SMS in each customer's own language.
- Pricing that does not rise with every customer you connect.
Purple Router does all of this in one platform, priced per router with unlimited PPPoE customers.
Want to see a billing system built for Kenyan ISPs? See how Purple Router works.