The network includes over 2,000 active member nodes throughout the five boroughs of New York City, with concentrations of users in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

[1][2][3] The goal of NYC Mesh is to build a large scale, decentralized digital network, owned by those who run it, that will eventually cover all of New York City and neighboring urban areas.

[4] This agreement, partially modeled on a similar license in use by Guifi.net, lists four key tenets: Other similar projects include Freifunk in Germany, Ninux in Italy, Sarantaporo.gr in Greece, the People's Open Network in Oakland, CA, Philly Community Wireless in Philadelphia, PA, Seattle Community Network in Seattle, WA, and Red Hook Wi-Fi in Brooklyn, NY.

NYC Mesh connects to the internet via the DE-CIX internet exchange point (IXP) at its first super node, Sabey Data Centers at 375 Pearl Street,[16] peering with companies such as Akamai, Apple, Google, and Hurricane Electric.

[18] The project received a membership boost due to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission vote in December 2017 to repeal its 2015 net neutrality rules.