Perched on a remote mountain ridge in Yemen’s southwestern Ibb province, a cluster of white dishes bolted to pipes and tree branches beams wireless internet to thousands of people in the area.

Parts of rural Ibb have no fixed telephone lines and limited mobile coverage. In an effort to deliver digital connectivity to his people, Nabil al-Mansouri launched a do-it-yourself wireless business, known as a community network, three years ago. 

Sort of like the once-ubiquitous internet cafe, community networks purchase bandwidth from Yemen’s state-owned internet service provider, YemenNet. It is then resold to members of the public. But rather than renting out a seat at an old PC in a smoke-filled room, community networks provide direct wireless internet access to customers in cities, suburbs and villages that would otherwise remain unconnected.

But last September, YemenNet surprised Mansouri and thousands of other community network operators with steep price hikes and data limits: One popular package, which used to cost $115 for 450 GB, now costs either $160 for 400 GB or $105 for 200 GB. A month later, the Iran-backed Zaidi Shiite Houthi government in Sanaa announced that it would no longer issue business permits to the community networks. Overnight, operations like Mansouri’s became illegal. By December, Houthi authorities had dispatched armed men to confiscate equipment from wireless providers and issue cease and desist letters at community network offices.