Wiring and Bandwidth Requirements for an Internet Cafe

There are two ways to view what your internet cafe is really offering, and which one you focus on will determine what kind of business you have, what kind of customers you have and how you should spend your startup budget. You are either offering a pleasant setting for people to check their email and do light internet tasks, or you are offering a work station in an office-like environment.

As you can immediately see, these two approaches are very different. But either one you choose, you need to provide the basic functionality expected of an internet cafe.

The most basic thing is electricity. Obviously you are going to have it like everyone else (and if you do lose power where you are, get a generator and become everybody's best friend and the top cafe in town because you'll be the only one with power), but your customers are only going to care about what they can access. This means you need outlets. Lots of outlets.



There should be at least two outlets near every table or bench in your cafe. You may have to hire an electrician to make this happen, but do not hesitate to do this. If you have bonafide workstations, each one should have four outlets. If possible, add ground fault interrupters to any outlet that might get hit with a coffee spill or possibly get wet in that once-a-year downpour rain shower. Also, make sure all outlets have surge protectors, or you could potentially be sued if a lightening strike fries someone's computer during a thunderstorm or a powersurge.

If you have not bought tables yet, seriously consider getting true computer tables that have holes to feed outlets up through the table from the floor. This keeps the cords out of the way. Depending on how crowded your cafe gets, you may save as many as a dozen trip and fall events a year just by keeping the computer charging cords out of the flow of foot traffic. And that's another law suit you won't have to worry about.

In addition to the outlets near the floor and the walls, for the house computers and for people bringing their own in, add even more outlets near the ceiling for your cameras. Oh yeah, you do want security cameras. At least three of them. One on the front door, one on the back door, and one at the checkout register or on the best full-room view you can get. Having a fourth camera is not a bad idea. A good quality closed-circuit camera will cost you about $200, plus another $400 to get them all installed and the system set up. But it is worth every penny.

Make sure the cameras are visible to your customers. That's because the cameras will prevent more crime than they will ever see. Internet cafes are terrific spots for thieves and purse snatchers and cyber criminals trying to either hack into your entire system or just trying to get access to whatever accounts the last user accessed. Just having those cameras up watching potential bad guys is often enough to entice them to move on to an easier target, thus giving your cafe a safe and secure reputation.

Now on the bandwidth requirements. You will need at least 512kbps for just five computers, and 1mbps for any more than that. This will seem slow to people who are used to cities and high-bandwidth networks, so expect some complaints. Really you need 5mbps to be considered fast, or to be of any interest to gamers. Do not brush off the gamers, though, because if you've got the speed, they can become your best customers. Bandwidth speeds will be even across all users, at least until you start to run out of it, at which point everyone's connection will start to slow down... a lot.