About the network
Río Bajo covers about 31 blocks of El Paso’s near west side, mostly stucco bungalows and courtyard apartments. The network was built by parents from the local elementary school after a provider’s fiber build stopped six blocks short of the neighborhood.
Schematic
Hover over or tap a node for its details, and click or tap again to open it. With a keyboard, move to the schematic and use the arrow keys.
Uptime
99.89% uptime over the last 90 days, with 1 day of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Río Bajo Neighborhood Network
- Legal home
- Cooperative corporation, owned by member households
- Members
- 1,258 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Third Monday of each month, 7:30 pm, at the housing cooperative’s lobby
- Annual assembly
- Every August
- Maintenance fund
- $9 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Nikolai P.Network steward · since 2025
- José D.Treasurer · since 2024
- Ana D.Membership steward · since 2025
- Jorge K.Training steward · since 2023
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-39-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | El Paso internet exchange | 15% |
| LT-39-BH2 | Licensed microwave, 11 GHz | 2 Gbps | Tower site, El Paso | 21% |
| LT-39-BH3 | Fiber, donated by the library system | 1 Gbps | Public library network | 21% |
Maintenance log
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Heat wave: 9 rooftop nodes throttled; all recovered overnight.
Annual assembly: 110 members attended and elected three stewards.
Backhaul fiber cut. A construction crew dug through the fiber. Traffic moved to the backup link at reduced speed until the provider spliced the cable.
Hardware refresh: 3 nodes upgraded to Gantry H5 over the year.
Storm damage: 7 dishes realigned and one mast replaced.
Hardware refresh: 16 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Climbing safety refresher: 18 installers recertified.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2025, mostly in grids A4, D5 and G2.
Annual assembly: 78 members attended and elected two stewards.
Spare parts inventory counted and restocked.
Dish on N-1674 re-aimed after a neighbor’s new extension blocked the path.
New hub on the senior center roof: N-2884.
Expansion: six new nodes in 2023, mostly in grids A3, C5 and E2.
Rooftop agreements reviewed; 2 renewed with new building owners.
Power injector for N-1669 replaced after a surge.
Hardware refresh: 13 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
Expansion: seven new nodes in 2020, mostly in grids A5, B5 and C5.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
Network switched on: 25 nodes installed by 61 volunteers over a weekend.
Founding assembly: the Río Bajo Neighborhood Network adopts its charter and elects four stewards.