What WISPA Could Be: An Operator's Perspective

Why I’m writing

WISPA can still be worth every dollar of dues, but it has to change what it sells. Today it sells a trade show. Operators are asking for services that make running their business easier, and for proof that their money is working.

I want to thank Keefe John, who asked this group for feedback. The replies were honest. I read every one of them, then looked at WISPA’s public filings and at how comparable associations earn their members’ loyalty. This is what I found, and what I think could fix it.

I’ve never been to a WISPA show myself, but my team has. I’m writing as an operator who wants WISPA to succeed, because an industry this size needs a strong voice, and right now a lot of us don’t feel we have one.

What operators are saying

More than twenty operators replied, and very few said WISPA is pointless. Most said they can’t point to anything that paid back their dues. The same themes came up again and again:

  • Return on investment. Operators can’t name a concrete benefit from membership that covered its cost this year.
  • The show. Vegas, travel and a week away from the network cost more than they used to return. The show floor feels repetitive, and the deep technical training that used to justify the trip has thinned out.
  • Price versus economics. Dues and show costs rose while revenue per subscriber and subscriber counts fell, especially for small and solo operators.
  • Advocacy on the issues that mattered most. Spectrum, and BEAD rules that treated unlicensed fixed wireless as unserved, were existential for many members. Several feel those fights were lost or came too late.
  • Communication. Updates feel infrequent, and newsletter coverage has drifted toward other technologies. Member questions about state processes sometimes went unanswered.
  • Representation. There is a perception that larger operators and vendors set the agenda, and that criticism isn’t welcome.
  • Identity. Operators moving to fiber don’t always feel welcome, and wireless operators feel the focus is moving away from them.

One reply put it well: WISPA may have a sales problem as much as a results problem. If WISPA is winning for its members, members can’t see it. Another said they now get more value from this free Facebook group than from the shows. That is the bar WISPA has to clear.

Where WISPA stands today

WISPA is a roughly $5M-a-year nonprofit whose revenue comes almost entirely from program services: dues, shows and sponsorships. All figures below come from its public IRS Form 990 filings, including the 2025 return filed in August 2026.

Year Revenue Expenses Net assets Exec. pay
2025 $4.52M $5.45M $1.64M $1.22M
2024 $4.86M $5.28M $2.57M $1.04M
2023 $5.03M $4.86M $3.43M $0.91M
2022 $4.99M $4.19M $3.27M $0.63M
2021 $4.06M $3.24M $2.47M $0.77M

The trend. Revenue peaked in 2023 and has fallen two years in a row, down 10% to $4.52M in 2025. That is consistent with what operators in this thread describe: fewer renewals and fewer trips to the show. Expenses kept rising anyway. WISPA lost $414K in 2024 and $930K in 2025, and its net assets fell by more than half in two years, from $3.43M to $1.64M. At the 2025 rate, that cushion covers less than two more years of losses. Running leaner isn’t only what members want. It’s what keeps WISPA solvent.

Compensation. Reported executive compensation reached $1.22M in 2025, nearly double the $0.63M of 2022, and now equals 22.5% of everything WISPA spends. To be fair, part of the 2025 increase comes from reporting one more senior role, and other salaries fell by $107K the same year. Even so, total payroll grew about 5% in 2025 while revenue fell 7%. The individual salaries are in line with other Washington trade associations, and good policy staff aren’t cheap. But members are cutting their own costs to survive, and an association that serves them should run on the same discipline. I don’t think this is about bad intentions. It’s an incentive problem: an organization funded by its shows will naturally protect the shows and the staff that run them.

Dues and the show. Operator dues scale with subscriber count. The 2024 published schedule started at $325 a year, and operators report increases since. I couldn’t find a current schedule published anywhere. Show costs are public:

WISPAPALOOZA 2026 full pass Member Non-member
Early bird $700 $1,030
Onsite $925 $1,286

That is before airfare, a Las Vegas hotel and a week away from the network (registration fees).

Benefits. WISPA’s materials list health, insurance and 401(k) options for members. In practice these are referrals to outside vendors, not a pooled program. My own team couldn’t get a response from the listed vendors and ended up with an unaffiliated provider. A vendor directory is a reasonable thing for an association to have, but it’s table stakes. Any company can go direct to a broker. What operators need is a pooled benefit, with group rates that come from combining many small employers into one large one.

Advocacy. Credit where it’s due. WISPA pushed NTIA hard to count unlicensed fixed wireless as reliable broadband in BEAD, and the June 2025 rule change forced states to re-evaluate those areas. It has also opposed selling off CBRS shared spectrum and engaged on 6 GHz. The problem is that many operators had already been marked unserved by then.

What works elsewhere

The associations people don’t argue about each own one tangible thing their members can’t easily get on their own.

Association What members get
Fiber Broadband Association OpTIC Path, a fiber technician program that cut onboarding from 6–9 months to 1–2.
NTCA Pooled group health, pension and 401(k) plans, with compliance handled for small telcos.
ACA Connects / NCTC A buying cooperative that gets small operators big-company pricing.
FISPA A low-cost peer network for independent ISPs, at $595 a year.

The best of these programs pay for themselves outside dues. FBA’s training qualifies for state workforce funding, and NCTC runs on purchasing margin. Members can see each one in a hiring plan, a benefits renewal or an invoice. That’s what ROI looks like.

A path forward

The goal is simple: membership should pay for itself on paper before anyone books a flight. Here is how I think WISPA gets there.

Reset the deal

  1. Publish a yearly “what your dues did” report. Cover filings, wins and losses, member savings, the budget and senior compensation, in plain language. Transparency is the cheapest trust-builder there is.
  2. Unbundle the show from membership. Price dues for the small operator, with a real low floor, and a free first year for the smallest ISPs.
  3. Make the show worth the trip, or skip the trip. Move the fall show to a cheaper, central city. Add one-day regional events within driving distance, and record every session for a low-cost virtual pass. Keep the floor operator-focused, and bring back the deep, hands-on training.
  4. Give small operators a real seat at the table. Reserve board seats for smaller operators. Hold an open quarterly town hall where anyone, member or not, can be heard.

Sell services, not tickets

  1. A real pooled benefits program. Group health and a pooled employer 401(k) with rates that come from WISPA’s combined membership, not a list of vendors to call. That alone helps us compete for talent against providers with much deeper pockets.
  2. A purchasing cooperative. Group pricing on IP transit, backhaul, radios, billing and OSS software, and insurance, plus standard tower lease templates. Show each member’s savings next to their dues. Pooled pricing may not be feasible for some of these items/categories, but it’s worth a try.
  3. A workforce credential. A fixed wireless and hybrid field-tech program with community colleges, modeled on OpTIC Path and partnered with existing tower-safety programs. Qualify it for state training funds.
  4. Benchmarks and succession help. Anonymized KPI benchmarking on ARPU, churn and cost per subscriber. A confidential program to connect operators who want to sell with those who want to grow.

Claim the lane nobody else owns

Fiber has FBA, rural telcos have NTCA, and cable has ACA Connects. Nobody owns the independent, multi-technology rural ISP, the operator running wireless and fiber together who lives or dies on spectrum. WISPA can own that lane:

  • Spectrum as the core expertise. Keep fighting at the FCC, and add a spectrum desk that helps members with CBRS, 6 GHz coordination, licensed-spectrum leasing and interference problems.
  • Technology-neutral, and proud of it. Welcome operators adding fiber. Fight funding rules that pick technologies instead of outcomes.
  • Lean by design. An association for operators on thin margins should look like one.

What success looks like

  • Membership retention among operators under 1,000 subscribers
  • Documented member savings of at least $2 for every $1 of dues
  • More operators than vendors at the shows
  • A growing share of revenue from services instead of events

A word on grants

Whether to take government funding is each operator’s decision, and WISPA shouldn’t take a side. Some operators won’t touch grant money on principle. Others pursued it because it was the best thing for their business and their community. Neither choice deserves to be shamed. When a local operator wins those funds, the money stays with someone who knows the area. Otherwise it usually goes to an incumbent with a one-size-fits-all build plan.

I speak from experience. My last company was overbuilt by a large cable provider using RDOF money, and it put us out of business. Funding programs like these are going to fund someone, and it could be you.

WISPA’s job is to support members either way. Defend self-funded operators in challenge processes, and give grant-seekers real help with mapping filings, challenges and applications. The honest truth is that this window has mostly closed. NTIA approved the last of all 56 BEAD final proposals in August 2026. Another large program is possible, but unlikely in the near term, especially as satellite broadband keeps adding capacity. If one comes, WISPA should be ready on day one.

Closing

The operators still in this industry are the ones who adapted. They cut costs, added fiber, found their niche, and learned to justify every dollar. WISPA can do the same. It can run leaner, publish its results, and build services so useful that the ROI is easy to justify.

I’d genuinely welcome a response from WISPA’s leadership, whether here or in a town hall. If parts of this are already underway, tell us and show us the numbers. That alone would go a long way.

Sources

Not verified: WISPA’s current dues schedule. The most recent published version is the 2024 brochure above; operators in the thread report increases since then.