Global spotlight: learning from community networks
From Catalonia to New York City, volunteer and cooperative models demonstrate that connectivity can be built and governed differently.
Web Infrastructure Rights for Everyone in Scotland
Internet access should be treated like the essential infrastructure it already is.
WIRES campaigns for dignified, affordable connectivity in homes and neighbourhoods—tracking what Scottish Government, councils, and communities are doing to close the gap between policy promises and everyday life online.
"When you can't get online, you can't fully participate.
That's not personal failure — it's a policy failure."
Find your way in
This campaign serves everyone affected
Residents
Understand your options
Learn what schemes exist, what you're entitled to, and how poor connectivity harms people through no fault of their own.
Organisers
Get active with us
Find practical ways to campaign, raise questions at council level, and connect with others working on digital inclusion in Scotland.
Researchers & press
Verify the evidence
Policy documents, official programmes, and cited sources—everything linked so you can check claims and go deeper.
What we argue
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Access shapes participation
Work, learning, health services, and democracy increasingly assume you can get online reliably. When connectivity is unstable or unaffordable, people are excluded from ordinary expectations—not through personal failure, but structural neglect.
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Public money should mean public clarity
Significant public investment flows into broadband and digital inclusion programmes. People deserve a clear path to the help that exists—not complicated applications, confusing criteria, or announcements buried so deep that the people who need them most never hear about them.
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Communities show a different way is possible
Cooperative and non-profit network projects worldwide—from Guifi.net in Catalonia to NYC Mesh—demonstrate that connectivity can be transparent, neighbourhood-scale, and governed in the public interest. Scotland can learn from these models.
Latest from the campaign
Editorial notes and pointers to official updates. For primary statistics, always check the sources linked on our Scotland and Resources pages.
Reading official strategy alongside lived experience
Policy documents matter—but they need to be tested against what people experience in homes, tenements, and rural communities.
Why we are campaigning for connectivity as everyday infrastructure
Access to affordable, reliable internet underpins work, learning, health information, and participation in public life.
Ready to get involved?
Join the mailing list and we'll let you know about events, consultations, and ways to take action. No spam—this is a volunteer campaign.