About the network
Tidewater Heights covers about 29 blocks of Jersey City’s south side, mostly public housing towers and the walk-ups around them. The network was built by a block club after a subsidized broadband offer expired and prices doubled overnight.
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
99.96% uptime over the last 90 days, with 1 day of degraded service or maintenance.
Governance
- Owned by
- Tidewater Heights Community Net
- Legal home
- Cooperative corporation, owned by member households
- Members
- 1,109 households, one vote each
- Monthly assembly
- Third Thursday of each month, 7:30 pm, at the union hall
- Annual assembly
- Every July
- Maintenance fund
- $6 a month per household, suggested. No household is disconnected for not paying.
Stewards
Elected by the members. Listed by first name and initial.
- Antoine H.Network steward · since 2021
- Malik S.Treasurer · since 2016
- Ngozi Y.Membership steward · since 2019
- Anthony M.Training steward · since 2023
- Margarita S.Rooftops steward · since 2018
- Ngozi M.Secretary · since 2023
- Chidi S.Network steward · since 2026
Backhaul
Links that carry the network’s traffic to the wider internet.
| Link | Medium | Capacity | Far end | Peak use yesterday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT-06-BH1 | Fiber | 10 Gbps | Jersey City internet exchange | 19% |
| LT-06-BH2 | Licensed microwave, 11 GHz | 2 Gbps | Tower site, Jersey City | 26% |
Maintenance log
Planned backhaul work. Done overnight. Members were told a week ahead at the monthly assembly.
Firmware 4.6.2 rollout. Staged firmware rollout to every node, one hub’s area at a time. Each node restarted once.
Annual assembly: 71 members attended and elected two stewards.
Climbing safety refresher: 6 installers recertified.
Hardware refresh: 22 nodes upgraded to Stoop R6 over the year.
Tree trimming along two backbone paths, with the city’s parks crew.
Annual assembly: 92 members attended and elected two stewards.
Expansion: four new nodes in 2024, mostly in grids B3, E5 and F2.
Heat wave: 8 rooftop nodes throttled; all recovered overnight.
Mount on N-0917 re-secured after the host reported a loose mast.
Storm damage: 6 dishes realigned and one mast replaced.
Dish on N-0127 re-aimed after a neighbor’s new extension blocked the path.
Installer workshop: 9 residents trained and climbed their first roof.
N-0383 moved to the other side of the roof to clear a new air-conditioning unit.
New hub on the fire station roof, under a city agreement: N-2669.
Hardware refresh: 21 nodes upgraded to Stoop R5 over the year.
Backhaul upgraded from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps fiber.
Firmware 4.0 rolled out to every node.
Hardware refresh: 17 nodes upgraded to Stoop R4 over the year.
New hub on the mill building roof: N-0729.
Firmware 3.0 rolled out to every node.
Network switched on: 14 nodes across the first few blocks.
Founding assembly: the Tidewater Heights Community Net adopts its charter and elects five stewards.