Byline: Dan Zak

WASHINGTON - Utopia announces itself in magenta and margarita green.

"Free Outdoor WiFi," say the placards shellacked to the sidewalks of Washington's First Street NE. Their cheery color scheme and matter-of-fact wording makes WiFi seem like both an amenity and a necessity, at least when pondered to the sound of water cascading over the stone facade of a nearby palace of swank apartments (sorry, residences). Washington's NoMa area claimed this month that it's the first neighborhood in the District of Columbia to connect the air we breathe to free Internet, and maybe it is, if you're particular about the definitions of "first" and "neighborhood" and "Internet."

But the livelier, whinier point of contention is this: Why, more than a decade into the proliferation of WiFi networks, is free wireless Internet not available everywhere all the time, especially in the capital of the free world? Why must we purchase and set up our own individual hotspots, or linger in coffee shops, or siphon connectivity from unsecured networks, or make do with our phones?

Why in 2014 is a neighborhood stoked to offer a service that for some has become as elemental as clean air, as sacrosanct as a universal human right?

"The technology really wasn't ready until now," says Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group dedicated to an open and accessible Internet. "It took a while for the technology to get up to speed and work and for people to understand the value. And now people are ready for it, you've got an infrastructure that can support it, you've got institutions like libraries that are embedded in the community - now we need to...