For buildings, owners and property managers
One connection for the whole building
Apartment buildings get a connection designed for them: one node on the roof, a line to every unit, and each apartment on a network of its own. How far it goes, down to a Wi-Fi router in every unit, is up to you.
How it is built
Every apartment on its own network
On the roof
A dish, or a small antenna for the block, on a non-penetrating mount. A few square feet, a standard outlet, and one cable down.
In the closet
A router and a switch in a wiring closet or basement, where a reboot does not need a ladder.
To each unit
One line per apartment, over cable that is already there or new runs we plan with you.
Kept apart
Each unit is its own network. Printers and TVs behave as they would on any ISP, and no apartment can see another.
Choose how far it goes
Three ways to set it up
Residents bring their own router
Each unit gets a connection at its wall jack, and each household plugs in whatever Wi-Fi router it likes. The simplest option, and what most buildings choose.
A router in every unit
You sponsor a Wi-Fi router for each apartment, so a new tenant plugs in a laptop and is online. Each unit's Wi-Fi gets its own name and key, the household gets the password and not the admin one, and we keep the routers updated.
New cable to each unit
Where there is no usable wiring, we plan runs from the closet to each apartment with you and your electrician, done once and done properly.
What it costs
Priced for your building, after a survey
A single home's hardware comes to about $250. A building costs more, and how much depends on the number of units, whether the closet needs a larger switch, and whether you want routers in every unit or new cable. We survey first and give you a hardware list with prices, so you know the cost before anything is ordered.
As with every member, the hardware is paid for by the people it serves, and for a building that is worked out case by case. The owner or the management company may sponsor it. A building whose residents cannot afford it may qualify for a grant, which we will look for with you. Or the residents raise it together, bake sale and all. Each household's membership is a suggested $30 a month, and nobody is turned away for not paying.
What we put in writing
- A short rooftop licence, signed by the owner, saying what goes where and who may visit.
- Non-penetrating mounts. Nothing is drilled into your roof without your consent.
- What the equipment draws: less than a lamp on the roof, and a closet's worth below.
- That you can ask us to take it all down, and we will.
Have a tall roof?
Host a rooftop antenna
A tall building with a clear view can carry an antenna that reaches thousands of homes. Hosting one costs you nothing and takes almost nothing: a few square feet of roof or parapet, a standard outlet, a path for one cable, and roof access now and then. What the building gets in return, and how its own connection is paid for, we work out with you, building by building.
Libraries, schools, churches, community centres
A building with a good connection
Even a building with no useful view can help. An organisation with a decent internet service can host a tunnel uplink: a small router on an isolated port of your network that carries a neighbourhood onto ours. It asks very little, and none of our traffic ever leaves under your address. The details are on anchoring an island.
If you receive E-rate or similar funding, that is a real question, and we would rather raise it ourselves than have it discovered later. Ask us early, and we will put the technical detail in front of whoever advises you on it.