Usage-Based Connectivity: How a Frac Site Operator Cut the Flat-Rate Habit
Michael Crayton, National Sales Account Manager
Most people think a data plan is simple: pick a size, pay for it, and live with whatever’s left unused at the end of the month. That’s not how Solve Networks approaches connectivity.
When one of our customers monitoring water treatment on frac and drilling sites came to us with a flat rate, we quickly realized their costs didn’t make sense based on their usage. Instead of selling them a bigger plan, we built them one that flexes with the job.
The Challenge
For companies monitoring water treatment on frac and drilling sites, the job itself is never static. A customer of Solve Networks deploys monitoring skids across these sites — temporary water infrastructure that reports a wide range of data points back to a central SCADA system, giving a remote team eyes on water treatment processes from anywhere.
Site infrastructure changes project to project, and so does data usage. The customer was stuck paying a flat rate sized for their busiest month, every month, whether they needed that capacity or not. In an industry where every site adds cost, paying for that data that never gets used isn’t just wasteful — it’s not sustainable at scale.
The Solve Approach
Rather than fitting the customer into a one-size-fits-all data plan, Solve built one around how they actually operate: usage-based, adjusted to match real consumption across sites and seasons. As deployments shift and data needs rise or fall, the plan moves with them instead of locking them in to paying for the ceiling every month.
It’s a small shift in structure with an outsized impact on the field: connectivity that reflects the job in front of the customer, not a generic average of every job they might have.
The Result
With a data plan built around real usage instead of worst-case capacity, the customer now has full SCADA visibility into water movement across every site. That means leaks get caught early, before they become costly. And because connectivity costs scale with the business rather than sitting fixed regardless of need, the customer isn’t paying for headroom they’re not using.
The outcome is straightforward: better visibility where it matters most, and a connectivity cost structure that grows and shrinks with the work.
Solve Networks builds connectivity around how industrial operations actually run — so if unpredictable usage or a flat-rate plan is costing your team more than it should, let’s talk.
About the Author
Michael Crayton, National Sales Account Manager
Michael Crayton is the National Sales Account Manager at Solve Networks, where he’s responsible for bringing in new business and making sure customers are getting the most out of their connectivity. Before joining Solve in 2025 as the company’s first salesperson, Michael spent over a decade at an industrial communications distributor, building a hands-on foundation in cellular routers, gateways, network design, and security consultation for mission-critical industrial applications.
