Case Studies
Theory is useful. Documented practice is better. Each case study examines what was built, how it performed under stress, what failed, and what lessons apply elsewhere.
Cairo Ramses Exchange Fire: When a Single Building Knocked Out a Nation's Internet
On 7 July 2025, a fire in a Cairo telephone exchange cut Egypt's national internet connectivity to 62%, suspended stock market trading, and disrupted banking — exposing how centralized internet infrastructure creates national-scale single points of failure.
Egypt2025Cuba: Grid Collapse and the Diaspora Communication Blackout (2024)
How a series of national power grid failures across 2024 left 10 million Cubans without electricity, cut mobile and internet services, and severed contact between the island and the nearly 3 million Cuban Americans trying to reach family from abroad.
Cuba2024Bangladesh: Internet Shutdown During the 2024 Uprising
How Bangladesh's government imposed a 22-day shutdown during the student-led uprising of July–August 2024, using layered controls from full blackouts to VPN blocking, and what survived.
Bangladesh2024Ukraine: Civilian Communication Networks Under Infrastructure Attack
How Starlink, civilian mesh networks, and amateur radio combined to maintain communication across Ukraine after Russia's 2022 invasion, and what it reveals about resilience under deliberate attack.
Ukraine2022NYC Mesh: Community Internet Infrastructure
How a volunteer-run WiFi mesh network grew to ~1,000 nodes across New York City, providing resilient internet access and demonstrating what community-owned infrastructure can sustain over a decade.
New York City, New York2014Red Hook, Brooklyn: Community Mesh After Hurricane Sandy
How a partially-deployed WiFi mesh network helped Red Hook survive Sandy, and why a community-owned network built before the disaster proved more valuable than anything deployed after.
Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York2012Guifi.net: Europe's Largest Community Network
How a farmer in rural Catalonia who couldn't get broadband built a community network that grew to 35,000 nodes, and the governance model that made it sustainable for two decades.
Catalonia, Spain2004Freifunk: Germany's Open Wireless Movement and the Refugee Crisis Response
How Germany's decentralized volunteer mesh network, built over a decade for open urban internet access, was rapidly mobilized to provide connectivity in hundreds of refugee shelters in 2015.
Germany2003
Cross-cutting lessons: Across all five case studies, the same patterns emerge — pre-existing infrastructure outperforms emergency deployment; community ownership creates sustainability; distributed architecture resists failure; training matters as much as hardware.
Ready to build? See the playbooks →