Residents in the 1700 block of 1st St. NW now have access to free wireless internet. (Photo: TBD Staff)

Tired of paying a high monthly bill for high speed Internet access, or could never afford it in the first place? You might want to consider moving to D.C.'s Bloomingdale neighborhood.

A pilot program to provide free wireless Internet access to residents in and around Bloomingdale and Eckington is now up and running on a limited scale, project leaders announced Wednesday.

Don't rush to cancel that broadband account just yet, though. The only area that's currently covered by the hotspot is about a 100 square-foot radius around the Big Bear Cafe at 1st and R streets NW. Hardware to expand the coverage neighborhood-wide (see this map for a rough idea of where it could eventually extend) has yet to be installed, while agreements between potential host sites for routers and repeaters are finalized.

Spearheaded by a group of neighborhood leaders and interested residents, the Wi-Fi pilot has been in development for several years, but only started to become a reality this spring after D.C.'s Office of the Chief Technology Officer stepped in to provide access to the city's fiber optic network.

Developing methods to bring broadband access to as many residents as possible "is a real passion for me," says Chief Technology Officer Bryan Sivak. "I want to see what happens if we launch a project to provide access to an entire community. Will they adopt?"

Sivak says the costs for the Bloomingdale program are relatively low. All OCTO has had to provide thus far was the link to the city's cable, though he acknowledges his office is still trying to figure out who will pay for the actual bandwidth used by residents.

The hardware and labor involved in installing the network comes courtesy an assortment of private donations, both from individuals and businesses with an interest in the neighborhood. Hugh Youngblood, of clean technology firm Youngblood Capital Group, for example, has arranged for hardware donations from his company, and is also currently running unopposed for the ANC 5C03 seat. Another D.C.-based tech firm, ETTE, has donated to the cause as well.

Once the network is up and running at the neighborhood level, the next challenge will be to make sure residents who aren't already online know about and are able to access the free signal.

ANC 5C04 commissioner John Salatti says he and his project partners are already working on developing outreach strategies, which could involve anything from going door-to-door to spread the word and assess needs to locating free computers for low-income residents.

"The people who we're most trying to reach wouldn't even know the signal is there," Salatti acknowledges.

As for expanding the program to other neighborhoods, Sivak is taking a wait and see approach. He says the Bloomingdale project only came about because there was a critical mass of residents ready and willing to make it happen. Not every neighborhood has the same set of circumstances, Sivak notes.