The volunteers blanketing cities with wireless interneton October 21, 2020 at 11:00 am

From the volunteers’ position, a supernode–a multi–antenna monstrosity responsible for linking much of the network on the Lower East Side to nodes in Brooklyn–was barely visible atop the Sabey building. Before them, in the shadow of the supernode’s signal, lay four residential buildings too short to get an angle on the antennas above them. For the next two and a half hours, Boning and Espinosa, along with another volunteer helping remotely with configuration, would work to create a route for internet traffic to those buildings via the node on the rooftop they had climbed to. “As soon as I learned what the Mesh was,” says Espinosa, “I was like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.'”

In Lower Manhattan, which has an underground fiber–optic network, residents still rely on wireless connections to route their internet from the fiber up to their apartments. For this step, renters are often restricted by building contracts to buying service from a single commercial internet provider. “Even people who can afford their internet are unhappy,” says Jillian Murphy, a university administrator and volunteer admin for NYC Mesh. In January, the mayor’s office released an 88-page report on the “digital divide”; it estimated that some 40% of the city’s households, about 3.4 million people, lack reliable broadband access.

NYC Mesh undertook its first project in early 2014. It has nearly doubled in size every year, with 561 active nodes. In the same period, dozens of other community network projects have popped up around the country, filling in where commercial ISPs refuse to upgrade aging fiber. Without pressure from local competitors, ISPs can force customers in underserved regions to settle for unreliable connections at steep prices.

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