Resources & references

Scottish Government

1. Broadband and connectivity policy hub
2. Reaching 100% (R100) public hub
3. Digital strategy for Scotland: vision statement
4. Digital public services delivery plan 2025–2028

Audit and scrutiny

1. Tackling Digital Exclusion (Audit Scotland, August 2024) — independent assessment finding no clear action plan, unclear leadership, and stalled momentum since the pandemic-era Connecting Scotland programme. Essential reading for campaigners and journalists.
2. Scottish Parliament Public Audit Committee: Tackling Digital Exclusion (September 2024) — parliamentary follow-up to the Audit Scotland report.
3. No leadership, no momentum: Scottish Government has failed to act on digital exclusion (Third Force News, September 2025) — sector response to continued inaction following the Audit Scotland findings.

Local government

1. COSLA Digital Office — co-owns the national Digital Strategy for Scotland
2. Digital Office for Scottish Local Government (digitaloffice.scot) — separate body supporting council digital transformation; distinct from COSLA's Digital Office function
3. COSLA LD/24/025: Digital Strategy Update (May 2024) — internal COSLA paper acknowledging strategy refresh needed and funding risks

UK regulators and reserved matters

1. Ofcom — coverage, quality, and affordability research (search the site for current reports).

Global spotlight primaries

1. Guifi.net — community network, Catalonia
2. NYC Mesh — volunteer mesh, New York City
3. Libraries Without Borders — Ideas Box — offline-first learning spaces
4. Freifunk — decentralised community wireless, Germany

Community networks in Scotland

Proof that community-owned and community-managed connectivity exists in Scotland right now — not as a future possibility, but as a working reality in some of our most remote areas.

1. HebNet — community internet for the Small Isles (Canna, Rum, Eigg, Muck) and Knoydart
2. Highland Community Broadband — served Ullapool 2017–2026; closed April 2026 due to rising operational costs. A case study in why community networks need policy support to survive.
3. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) — administers Community Broadband Scotland funding; pilots in Applecross, Colonsay, Tomintoul and others
4. B4RN — Broadband for the Rural North; UK benchmark for community cooperative broadband; Lancashire

Providers taking ethics seriously

Not a recommendation list — but these UK providers hold B Corp certification or have community ownership as a core part of their model, not an afterthought. Worth knowing about when making the argument that the dominant commercial model is a choice, not an inevitability.

1. IDNet — UK's first B Corp certified telecommunications company
2. Zen Internet — B Corp certified; consumer and business broadband
3. Cuckoo — B Corp certified; now part of Octopus Energy Group
4. Wildanet — first UK AltNet to achieve B Corp; rural gigabit in Cornwall
5. Connexin — B Corp certified full fibre provider

B Corp status is independently verified but can change — check each provider's current certification on the B Lab directory. Listing here is not an endorsement.

WIRES content may summarise these sources; numbers and eligibility rules can change. Always confirm details on the live pages before relying on them in casework.