Network design
We operate the whole path.
This page is about what sits between your apartment and the internet, and who owns or operates each piece. In our case, we operate the path end to end: from the IP addresses to the cable in your hallway, one company is accountable for it. The company that bills you is the company that fixes it.
This page describes how the network is built. How we manage traffic on it is a separate document: our Network Management Disclosure.
The short version
Four things worth knowing.
The radio layer
The access network runs on Tarana G2 — equipment designed for exactly the problem Manhattan presents: buildings in the way, weather overhead, and no patience for a link that drops when either one shows up.
About 10 ms, typically
Median latency on our network is around 10 milliseconds. That is the number that decides whether a video call feels like a conversation or a walkie-talkie, and it is published on every one of our Broadband Facts labels.
Capacity sized to the people on it
We engineer capacity per node against the households actually connected to it, and add capacity as a node fills. The plan you bought is meant to work at 9 p.m., not just at 3 a.m.
Operated end to end
Our IP space. Our transport. Our radios, our switches, our inside cabling, our staff. We do not resell another carrier’s network, and we do not outsource the people who run ours.
The access layer
What “next-generation fixed wireless” actually means.
Fixed wireless has a reputation earned by older equipment: point a dish at a tower, keep a clear line of sight, and hope it doesn’t rain. The current generation does not work that way, and the differences are the reason this is a serious way to serve Manhattan.
It does not need a clear line of sight
Our radios are built for non-line-of-sight operation. A parapet, a water tower, a bulkhead, or a neighboring building between you and the node is a normal condition, not a disqualification. In a neighborhood where almost nothing has an unobstructed view of anything, that is the difference between serving a building and walking away from it.
Weather is designed for, not hoped around
The frequencies and the modulation we use are far less sensitive to rain and snow than the millimeter-wave equipment that gave fixed wireless its weather reputation. The link adapts as conditions change rather than simply failing. We will not tell you weather can never affect a radio network — that would be a sales claim, not an engineering one — but designing for it is the whole point.
More than one way to reach you
The platform supports meshing, so a building can be reachable through more than one path rather than depending on a single link. Where a second path exists, traffic can move to it. That is a design property, not a guarantee: this page makes no uptime promise, and not every building has an alternate path today.
Very little hardware on your building
A typical site is one node and an outdoor switch — not a rooftop full of dishes. The exact mounting, cable route, and power arrangement depend on the building, and we put the specifics in writing for your board or managing agent before anything is installed. What we ask building owners for →
Power and operations
Power and operations.
Redundant power at our sites
Our sites are built with redundant power sources, so the loss of one supply is not automatically the loss of the site. Building power and your own apartment are still yours — if the power is out in your unit, no ISP on earth can help you.
We operate our own network
The people who plan capacity, install the equipment, and respond when something breaks work for us. Network operations are not contracted out to a third party, so there is no other company to hand your problem to. Current network status →
Ownership and operation
“We operate it” — line by line.
That phrase gets used loosely in this industry, usually by companies reselling somebody else’s circuits. Here is exactly what it means for us, piece by piece.
| Layer | Who owns or operates it |
|---|---|
| IP address space | Ours — we hold our own IP space rather than borrowing a carrier’s. |
| Transport to the internet | Operated by us — dark fiber we lease and light ourselves, into our own points of presence. |
| Radio and networking equipment | Ours — purchased, configured, and maintained by us. |
| Cabling inside your building | Where we run new cable, it is ours and our crew installs it. Where a building already has usable coax, we use that and the equipment on it is ours. |
| Network operations | Ours — in-house staff, not an outsourced contract. |
| The connection you buy | Delivered entirely over the above. No other carrier’s network sits in the path. |
Operating the whole path is not a bragging right; it is an accountability structure. When something goes wrong on a resold connection, the company you pay opens a ticket with the company that actually owns the network, and you wait on both. Here there is one company, and it is the one that answers your email.
In practice
What any of this buys you.
Uploads that are actually usable
Every plan carries a real upload figure — 50, 100, or 200 Mbps at home — and Business Standard is symmetrical at 100/100. Those are the published numbers, on the label, not a promotional rate. See the plans →
A number you can check
Typical download speed, upload speed, and latency are published on our Broadband Facts labels, in the FCC’s standard format. The NYC Speed Guarantee covers your plan’s download and upload speeds — not latency — and states in writing what happens if we miss them.
Install that respects the building
A node and an outdoor switch, minimal penetrations, and a crew that has done this in prewar Upper West Side buildings before. See the coverage map →
The limits
What this design does not do.
Every network has edges. Here are ours, stated before you buy rather than discovered afterwards.
Not every building works
The equipment has to be mounted somewhere sound, the path has to close, and the co-op board or owner has to agree. Any one of those can be a no. We tell you which one it was.
Your Wi-Fi is still your Wi-Fi
Our responsibility ends at the handoff in your apartment. A speed test over Wi-Fi measures your router, your walls, and your device as much as our link — which is why the speed guarantee is measured over Ethernet.
The city keeps building
A new tower going up can change a radio path that worked last year. When that happens, we resurvey and reengineer the approach. We will not put a restoration time in a marketing sentence.
Meshing is a capability, not a promise
The platform supports more than one path to a building. Whether your building has a second path today depends on what is built around it. Ask us about your address and we will tell you what exists there now.
One address, one answer
See what your building can do.
Send the address. A person checks the exact building, then replies by email with the result: whether it is serviceable, which plans are available there, and the likely install method.