By Robert Oliver (Contributor)

Did you know that the District of Columbia government has been working on dramatically increasing access to free W-Fi since January 2017? This work is being done through the DC Smart Street Lighting program to replace approximately 75,000 streetlights bulbs with energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs). This project also includes “installing wireless access points across the District, improving the DC-NET Wi-Fi program.” More detailed information on the Smart Street Program can be found here.

On January 24, 2017, the District of Columbia government hosted an industry forum to discuss the concept of the Smart Street Lighting program. The information flyer is available here. Today, the program is still ongoing. However, the capacity of DC-Net has been increased with the installation of new wireless access hubs throughout the city.  DC-Net now offers an online map of its free Wi-Fi network.  By just entering your address, you can see the Wi-Fi access hubs nearest you. 

While the digital divide still exists, DC-Net has made free Wi-Fi more accessible through the DC Smart Street Lighting program.