About the network
Tannery Row covers about 24 blocks of Milwaukee’s west side, mostly mid-rise apartment blocks. The network was built by a mutual aid network after a provider’s fiber build stopped six blocks short of the neighborhood.
Schematic
Uptime
99.96% uptime over the last 90 days, with 1 day of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Tannery Row Mesh Cooperative
- Legal home
- Cooperative corporation, owned by member households
- Members
- 1,050 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Last Saturday of each month, 11:00 am, at the community health center’s meeting room
- Annual assembly
- Every August
- Maintenance fund
- $7 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Xiomara L.Network steward · since 2019
- Rebecca L.Treasurer · since 2022
- Bernice G.Membership steward · since 2025
- Malik D.Training steward · since 2016
- Ibrahim L.Rooftops steward · since 2024
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-25-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | Milwaukee internet exchange | 15% |
| LT-25-BH2 | Fiber, donated by the library system | 1 Gbps | Public library network | 42% |
Maintenance log
Planned backhaul work. Done overnight. Members were told a week ahead at the monthly assembly.
Power injector for N-1004 replaced after a surge.
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Annual assembly: 106 members attended and elected two stewards.
Grounding on N-0978 redone after an inspection found a corroded lug.
Hardware refresh: 26 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Annual assembly: 73 members attended and elected two stewards.
Rooftop agreements reviewed; 3 renewed with new building owners.
Heat wave: 3 rooftop nodes throttled; all recovered overnight.
Mount on N-1199 re-secured after the host reported a loose mast.
New hub on the parish bell tower: N-2827.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2023, mostly in grids D4, G2 and G4.
Installer workshop: 19 residents trained and climbed their first roof.
Hardware refresh: 20 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
Hardware refresh: 16 nodes upgraded to Stoop R4 over the year.
Expansion: three new nodes in 2017, mostly in grids D5 and G1.
Network switched on: 33 nodes installed by 156 volunteers over a weekend.
Founding assembly: the Tannery Row Mesh Cooperative adopts its charter and elects five stewards.