A Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider that allows users to connect to the internet using radio waves to deliver internet to the customer.   The operating mechanism of a WISP involves pulling an expensive and large point-to-point connection to the center of the areas that needs to be serviced.  The process involves locating an elevated building or communications tower on which wireless equipment can be mounted.  A simple explanation of a WISP is it utilizes wireless radios hooked to towers to deliver the Internet to antennas mounted on customer’s homes or buildings. This allows customers without options to be installed in a matter of days instead of months or even years.

In order to access the Internet a customer needs some sort of physical connection.  Historically, the cable and telephone companies have been the ones to provide these connections.  The telephone network is based upon a hundred-year-old technology.   In order to upgrade the telephone networks to meet the demand of today’s Internet user major upgrades have to be done. This involves large amounts of money, planning, and regulatory approvals. Things such as digging up city streets to dig new lines are not typically done very fast.  This results in the telephone companies being slow in rolling out faster Internet connections to customers. This is a case where the demand far outweighs the ability to keep up with that demand.

A WISP allows for deployment of Broadband Internet services to areas of little, aging, or no infrastructure.  A WISP bypasses the traditional land-line based technologies such as cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) to deliver Internet to consumers.

Households are becoming more and more integrated with technology.  For example, smart television, security systems, and devices require access to the Internet to send and receive information.  As a result, faster and faster Internet connections are needed to meet this ever-growing demand.