Folks were trekking to Lake Providence in the northeast corner of Louisiana from Washington, D.C., to cheer the expected expansion of high-speed Internet across the small city. The head of the state’s broadband office was set to attend. The Internet company, Conexon, had installed fiber optic cables in the ground, right up to the library, where the event was to be held. But by the time of the event, in early May, the celebration and the exclamation point had disappeared from the poster.