Culture
Is Broadband for All Even Possible?
The District of Columbia is trying to bring high-speed internet to more of its residents. But it's much more complicated than anyone imagined.
Preston Rhea is installing routers.
More than 20 wireless routers sit on rooftops in Washington, D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood. About a mile away in Mt. Pleasant, eight such routers have already been installed, with plans for an expansion into neighboring Columbia Heights. In each neighborhood, the routers form the basis of a community mesh network—wireless networks openly accessible to residents and supervised by the Broadband Bridge, a D.C.-based organization of which Rhea is a member.