The minimum viable WISP stack
- Mounting point: tower, mast, or rooftop with line of sight to your target coverage area
- Backhaul: fibre, microwave link, or Starlink connecting you to your upstream bandwidth
- Sector antenna(s): distributes signal to client-side radios across your coverage zone
- Core router: handles routing, bandwidth management and customer authentication
- Client-side CPEs: one radio per customer, sized to distance and line of sight
- Backup power: grid power in Kenya is not guaranteed uptime, this is not an optional add-on
Tower and mounting: buy, lease or rooftop?
A rooftop lease on a tall building is usually the fastest and cheapest way to get elevation in urban areas. A dedicated tower makes sense once you are covering a wider or more rural area and rooftop options run out. Do not over-invest in tower infrastructure before you have proven demand at that site.
Backhaul options compared
| Option | Best for |
|---|---|
| Fibre | Highest capacity, most stable, where it is already reachable |
| Microwave / wireless link | Fast to deploy, good for line-of-sight sites fibre hasn't reached |
| Starlink | Sites with no fibre or line-of-sight microwave option |
Client-side CPEs: what to stock for your first 50 customers
Stock for your first 20 to 50 signups, not your five-year target. Match CPE radio range and gain to your typical customer distance from the tower rather than buying one model for every distance band. Mismatched CPEs are the single most common cause of inconsistent client-side speeds in new WISP rollouts.
Power backup: why this is not optional in Kenya
A tower site that goes dark during a power cut takes every connected customer down with it. Budget backup power into every active site from day one, not as a later upgrade.
Budget allocation by phase
Rather than fixed figures, since equipment costs shift with currency and supplier, think in proportions.
| Phase | Where the budget concentrates |
|---|---|
| Pilot (first site, under 50 customers) | Mounting/rooftop lease, one backhaul link, one sector antenna, CPEs for early signups, one backup power unit |
| Growth (50 to 200 customers) | Additional CPEs, a second sector or site, possible tower upgrade, redundant backhaul |
| Scale (200+ customers) | Core network hardware upgrades (OLT if moving to fibre), NOC tooling, dedicated backup power per site |
Getting current pricing
For current equipment pricing at each phase, request a bulk quote. Pricing is matched to your specific site count and rollout plan rather than published as a flat list.