Captive portal WiFi equipment comes down to three line items: a stable internet link, a router that can handle authentication and bandwidth sharing, and enough access points to cover the floor area. For 30 to 50 concurrent users, that means a 20 Mbps fibre line, a dual-core 1 GHz router with 512 MB of RAM, and two access points. Quality of service, security and redundancy are all sized from those three decisions.

The internet link sets the ceiling for everything else, because no router compensates for a saturated line. In urban areas, fibre remains the best choice for a captive portal: symmetrical throughput, low latency, and video calls and online gaming that actually work. Budget a minimum of 20 Mbps for 30 to 50 concurrent users.

Outside fibre coverage, Starlink is the realistic option, at roughly 50,000 FCFA per month. It installs in a single day and needs no cabling run to the site, which makes it the fastest way to bring a rural location online. The trade-off is variable latency and a service that stays sensitive to weather.

Fibre’s main weakness is contractual rather than technical: availability stops at the edge of the city, and the connection date depends entirely on the operator. On a site you need to open quickly, running Starlink while the fibre order works its way through avoids pushing back the launch.

The router: the component not to undersize

A captive portal router runs authentication, session timing and bandwidth sharing on top of plain routing. It needs at least a dual-core 1 GHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM, 1 GB once concurrent sessions pass roughly fifty, and native hotspot and RADIUS support, which is what Mobile Money payment integration hooks into.

Three features decide how the network behaves day to day. QoS caps throughput per user and stops one download from swallowing the line. VLANs keep guest traffic separate from management traffic. Cloud-based remote management saves a site visit every time a setting changes. The usual models fall into three brackets:

  • Under 300,000 FCFA: Mikrotik RB4011 or hEX S, TP-Link ER605 v2
  • 300,000 to 600,000 FCFA: Mikrotik CCR1009, Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro
  • Above 600,000 FCFA: Mikrotik CCR2004, or pfSense on dedicated hardware

Access points: one per 50 to 70 m² indoors

Captive portal access points are counted from three inputs: floor area, obstacles, and concurrent users. Indoors, one access point covers 50 to 70 m²; outdoors, 100 to 150 m². Each one handles 30 to 50 concurrent users. Work out both numbers, the one from area and the one from expected traffic, and install whichever is larger.

On specifications, favour WiFi 6 (802.11ax) for throughput, dual-band 2.4 and 5 GHz for flexibility, and Power over Ethernet, where a single cable carries both data and power and takes most of the work out of mounting. Centralised management then lets you drive every access point from one interface. The most widely deployed models sort as follows:

  • Tight budget: TP-Link EAP245 indoors, EAP225-Outdoor outside
  • Mid budget: Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC Pro, UniFi AP 6 Lite
  • Comfortable budget: Ubiquiti UniFi AP 6 Pro, Ruckus R650

Mounting matters as much as the model. Fix access points 3 to 4 metres up, away from metal obstructions, wired with Category 6 cable or better and never more than 100 metres per run. Outdoors, plan for an IP65 enclosure, lightning protection and wind-rated brackets, none of which are optional once the rainy season starts.

Three reference builds and what they cost

A captive portal for a small site of 30 to 50 users, a student residence for instance, lands around 500,000 FCFA excluding the subscription: a 20 to 30 Mbps fibre line, a Mikrotik hEX S router (150,000 FCFA), two TP-Link EAP245 access points (180,000 FCFA), a 5-port PoE switch (50,000 FCFA) and 120,000 FCFA of cabling and labour.

A mid-sized site of 50 to 100 users, typically a residential compound, comes to roughly 1,470,000 FCFA: a 50 Mbps fibre line or Starlink, a Mikrotik CCR1009 router (450,000 FCFA), four Ubiquiti AC Pro access points (600,000 FCFA), an 8-port PoE switch (120,000 FCFA) and 300,000 FCFA of installation.

A large site of 100 to 200 users, a university campus for example, reaches about 3,500,000 FCFA: a 100 Mbps fibre line or Starlink Business, a Mikrotik CCR2004 router (800,000 FCFA), eight Ubiquiti WiFi 6 Pro access points (1,600,000 FCFA) and two 16-port PoE switches (400,000 FCFA).

Those totals cover hardware and installation, not operation: add 25,000 to 50,000 FCFA of internet and 8,000 to 15,000 FCFA of electricity every month. Set the result against the profitability maths for a compound site, which works from 45,000 FCFA of monthly costs against 60,000 to 80,000 FCFA of revenue.

Shared bandwidth, security and uptime

Bandwidth sharing is configured plan by plan, so that no single user absorbs the line. The captive portal applies a ceiling based on the plan purchased, then a priority based on traffic type: browsing and gaming get high priority, video streaming is capped at 720p, and torrents and P2P sit at low priority or are blocked outright.

  • 1-hour plan: 2 Mbps maximum
  • Daily plan: 3 Mbps maximum
  • Weekly plan: 5 Mbps maximum
  • Monthly plan: 10 Mbps maximum

Network security rests on three settings. Client isolation stops users from seeing each other and shuts down ARP attacks and DHCP spoofing. The firewall closes risky ports and filters illegal content where the law requires it. Connection logs, which are a legal obligation, have to be kept and actually reviewed rather than merely enabled.

Uptime is arranged before the first outage, not after it. A UPS with 2 to 4 hours of runtime covers ordinary power cuts, a secondary 4G/LTE router with automatic failover takes over when the main link drops, and a spare access point on the shelf saves waiting on an order. That availability is what turns a site into a source of passive income instead of a permanent on-call job.