Highland Community Broadband, a volunteer-founded wireless network serving remote Wester Ross since 2017, closed as an organisation at the end of April 2026 after larger-scale voucher schemes proved unworkable for a small operator. Its network was sold to Scotnet, which still runs it.
Highland Community Broadband began in 2017 to bring a working internet connection to part of Wester Ross that commercial providers were not going to reach. It closed as an organisation on 30 April 2026, citing rising backhaul, legal, and maintenance costs it could no longer sustain. It sold the network to Scotnet, which has kept it running as Wester Ross Broadband, so residents did not lose their connection.
The detail that should concern anyone designing connectivity policy: the operator says it tried to use the R100 voucher scheme and the UK Gigabit voucher scheme to fund network upgrades, and found both built around the scale and paperwork of much larger companies, not a community-run network.
This is the flip side of the community-network model we celebrate on our Global spotlight page. Volunteer and cooperative networks can do things commercial rollout won't — but only if public schemes are actually built to support them, not just the incumbents.
The Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme, worth up to £5,000 towards a faster connection, closes to new applications on 20 November 2026. In Aberdeenshire alone, 2,089 premises are still eligible and have not used it.
WIRES has sent its submission to the Competition and Markets Authority's inquiry into BT's purchase of TalkTalk, asking that any approval protects prices, guarantees access to a social tariff and recognises the greater effect in rural Scotland. The full text is here. Comments closed on 9 October; the CMA reports by 19 October.
We read the published digital strategies of Scotland's 32 councils. Of the 24 we could verify, only Glasgow has a standalone strategy on digital exclusion. In 22, it is a theme inside a plan about the council's own services. Eight we couldn't confirm.
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