What is a hotspot business?
You buy internet in bulk, then sell it in portions people can actually afford — an hour, a day, a week. Here is how it works, what you need to start, and what the software does for you.
Buy in bulk, sell by the cup
A monthly fibre line is expensive. Most people around you cannot justify paying for one, but nearly all of them want to get online for a while — to send a document, watch something, or make a call.
A hotspot business sits in that gap. You pay for one good internet line, then sell access to it in small pieces to the people nearby. One customer buys an hour for KSh 20. Another buys a full day. Another buys a week. None of them could afford your monthly bill on their own — but together, they more than cover it.
Everything else is just the machinery that makes this practical: a way to show people your prices, take their money, let them online, and cut them off when their time is up — hundreds of times a day, without you standing there doing it.
The mental picture
You buy a sack of maize wholesale and sell it by the cup. The sack is your internet line. The cups are hours and days. Your profit is the difference — and your job is to sell enough cups to more than cover the sack.
What your customer actually experiences
Five steps, start to finish. All of it happens on their phone, and none of it needs you.
They connect to your Wi-Fi
Your network shows up on their phone like any other Wi-Fi. It is open — no password needed to connect.
A login page appears
Instead of the internet, their phone shows your branded page listing your prices. This page is the captive portal.
They pick a plan and pay
They tap "1 hour · KSh 20", enter their number, and an M-Pesa prompt appears on their phone. They enter their PIN.
They are online, instantly
The moment M-Pesa confirms, the router lets them through. No waiting, no one hands them anything.
Time runs out, access stops
When their hour is up, the router cuts them off automatically and the login page comes back. They buy again if they want more.
The whole cycle takes under a minute. You are asleep for most of them.
What you need to start
Six things. Two of them are one-off purchases, one is a monthly cost, and one matters more than all the rest.
An internet line
A fibre connection, or a link bought from a larger ISP. This is your stock — you buy it in bulk each month and resell it in small portions.
Your biggest running costA MikroTik router
The brain of the operation. It decides who gets online, for how long, and cuts people off when their time ends. Nothing works without it.
One-off purchaseAccess points
The devices that actually broadcast the Wi-Fi signal. How many you need depends on how much area you want to cover and how thick the walls are.
One-off purchaseA location with people
Hostels, estates, shopping centres, salons, matatu stages, markets. The business only works where people already gather and already want internet.
The thing that decides successAn M-Pesa Paybill or Till
So customers pay you directly. For payments to unlock access automatically, you also need Daraja API credentials from Safaricom.
Free to apply forA billing system
The software that ties it all together — shows the login page, takes the payment, opens the connection, and closes it again when time is up.
This is what Jasiyo isThe one that decides everything
Location beats equipment every time. A cheap router in a busy hostel will earn more than expensive gear in a quiet street. Before you spend anything, stand where you plan to put it and count how many people are actually there.
What a billing system actually does
This is the part people find hardest to picture. Here are the six jobs it does — and what you would be doing by hand instead.
Shows the login page
The captive portal — the branded page a customer sees instead of the internet, listing your plans and prices.
You would have to hand out a password, and then everyone would share it for free.
Collects the money
Sends the M-Pesa prompt to the customer's phone and waits for Safaricom to confirm the payment landed in your account.
You would check your phone for every payment and manually confirm each one.
Opens and closes access
Tells the router to let this specific phone online the second payment clears — and to cut it off when the time expires.
You would type each customer into the router by hand, then remember to remove them.
Issues vouchers
Printed codes you sell at a counter, for customers who would rather pay cash than use M-Pesa.
You would have no way to sell to anyone not paying by phone.
Sends the login details
Texts the customer their code, and warns them by SMS before their time runs out so they can top up.
Customers who close the page lose their access with no way to get back in.
Keeps the books
Shows what you earned today, which plans sell best, how many people are online right now, and which site is busiest.
You would be guessing whether the business is actually making money.
Put simply: the router is the gate, and the billing system is the gatekeeper who checks whether someone has paid. You can run a hotspot without one — but you would be the gatekeeper, personally, every hour of every day.
Hotspot or home internet?
These are the two ways to sell internet. Most ISPs eventually do both.
Hotspot
- Customers pay per hour, day or week
- No cable to anyone's house
- Walk-up customers, no contract
- Best where people gather
- Small amounts, many customers
PPPoE (home internet)
- Customers pay a fixed amount monthly
- A cable runs to each home
- Subscribers who stay for years
- Best in residential estates
- Larger amounts, fewer customers
Common questions
Now you know how it works
Jasiyo is the billing system part — the login page, the M-Pesa collection, and the router control. Try it free for 7 days and see your first customer pay.
3% of revenue · min KSh 1,000/mo · KSh 500 onboarding · Cancel anytime