How to Set Up a MikroTik Hotspot for Hotels, Campuses & Venues in Uganda: Voucher Billing & Guest Management

A MikroTik Hotspot lets you monetise internet access at venues, markets, hotels, and public spaces across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania — without requiring a technical setup from your subscribers. Users connect to Wi-Fi, open a browser, and land on a captive portal login page. They pay via voucher, mobile money, or through your ISP billing system, and get timed or data-limited access automatically.

MikroTik Hotspot Use Cases for African ISPs

• Hotels and guesthouses — sell daily or hourly Wi-Fi vouchers to guests
• Markets and trading centres — provide paid Wi-Fi to traders and shoppers
• Schools and institutions — control and log student internet access
• ISP public zones — offer prepaid hotspot access as an additional revenue stream

Recommended Hardware

• MikroTik hAP RouterBOARD with PoE — ideal indoor hotspot router; handles 50–100 concurrent users
• MikroTik hAP lite Wireless Router — compact indoor hotspot for small venues
• MikroTik hAP lite RB941-2nD — budget option for small hotspot deployments
• MikroTik wAP ac Dual-Band — outdoor hotspot AP for markets and schools
• MikroTik hEX S RB760iGS — upstream PoP router connecting hotspot AP to your ISP network
• MikroTik hEX RB750Gr3 — zone distribution router feeding multiple hotspot APs
• MikroTik RBGPOE PoE Injector — powers outdoor hotspot APs
• MikroTik MANTBox 12s — sector AP for large outdoor hotspot coverage

Cabling: Cat6 Flat Ethernet Cable (indoor) and Cat6 Indoor/Outdoor UTP Cable (outdoor). Browse the full MikroTik Routers collection.

Step 1: Set Up the Hotspot Interface

1. Winbox → Bridge → + — create bridge-hotspot
2. Add Wi-Fi interface (wlan1) and subscriber ports to the bridge
3. IP → Addresses → + — assign 192.168.88.1/24 on bridge-hotspot

Step 2: Configure the Hotspot Server

1. IP → Hotspot → Hotspot Setup
2. Interface: bridge-hotspot
3. Address pool: 192.168.88.2-192.168.88.254
4. DNS name: e.g., hotspot.yourisp.co.ug
5. Create a test user: test / test
6. Click Next — RouterOS configures hotspot automatically

Step 3: Configure Hotspot Profiles

1. IP → Hotspot → User Profiles → +
2. Name: 1-Hour-2Mbps | Rate Limit: 2M/2M | Session Timeout: 01:00:00 | Shared Users: 1
3. Click OK — create one profile per voucher tier

Step 4: Generate Vouchers

1. IP → Hotspot → Users → +
2. Name: voucher code (e.g., ABC123) | Profile: select tier | Click OK

Your ISP billing system can generate and manage hotspot vouchers automatically, tied to mobile money payments.

Step 5: Customise the Login Page

1. Files — download the hotspot folder
2. Edit login.html with your ISP branding and logo
3. Upload the modified folder back to the router

Step 6: Integrate with ISP Billing System

Your ISP billing platform manages hotspot users via RouterOS API:

• Creates hotspot users automatically on mobile money payment
• Sets session timeout and bandwidth profile per plan
• Expires and deletes users when sessions end
• Generates usage reports per hotspot location

Troubleshooting

• Login page not appearing — verify hotspot is active on the correct interface; check DNS points to router IP
• Can’t connect after login — verify NAT masquerade rule is in place; check WAN is up
• Voucher already used — set Shared Users to 1 in the profile
• Slow speeds — verify Rate Limit in user profile; check upstream backhaul congestion

Conclusion

Deploy a hAP RouterBOARD or wAP ac at a venue and let your ISP billing system handle voucher creation, mobile money collection, and session management automatically.

Automate hotspot billing with our ISP platform →