Web Infrastructure Rights for Everyone in Scotland
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."
Source: Ofcom, Pricing and consumer engagement 2025 · Find out if you qualify
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.
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.
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.
Find your way in
Residents
Learn what schemes exist, what you're entitled to, and how poor connectivity harms people through no fault of their own.
Organisers
Find practical ways to campaign, raise questions at council level, and connect with others working on digital inclusion in Scotland.
Researchers & press
Policy documents, official programmes, and cited sources—everything linked so you can check claims and go deeper.
These two schemes help the most people, fastest — no long forms, no means-testing beyond what you already receive.
Cheaper broadband for people on benefits
£12.50–£20/month broadband if you're on Universal Credit or another qualifying benefit. No paper proof needed — just ask your provider.
Free SIM cards with data — no address needed
Free SIM cards with mobile data, distributed through foodbanks, libraries, and hostels. One of the only schemes available if you don't have a fixed address.
Audit Scotland · August 2024
Scotland's own public spending watchdog checked whether the national "No-One Left Behind" digital inclusion commitment was actually being delivered. It found no clear plan, and no one clearly responsible for it. Momentum has stalled since the pandemic, and Audit Scotland called for a government response by end of 2024/25. None has been published.
Editorial notes and pointers to official updates. For primary statistics, always check the sources linked on our Scotland and Resources pages.
Vodafone withdrew its £12/month Essentials tariff, raising its entry price to £20. Virgin Media's Essential Broadband at £12.50 is now the lowest verified social tariff on the market — a reminder that these deals and their prices shift, so it's worth checking before you apply.
The government-backed Shared Rural Network has switched on its 140th mobile mast, with 49 now live in Scotland — including a second site on Islay that restores signal from all four networks to an area that previously had none.
The government-backed Shared Rural Network switched on its 50th mobile mast in Scotland on the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula, extending all-four-operator 4G coverage across more than 1,900 square kilometres of rural Scotland — an area larger than Edinburgh and Glasgow combined.
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.
