After nine years connecting Ullapool, volunteer-run Highland Community Broadband closed in April 2026 and sold its network to Scotnet, which still runs it. Residents kept their connection. The community model did not survive rising costs, and that is the lesson for policy.
Highland Community Broadband (HCB) started in 2017 as a community response to poor connectivity in Ullapool — exactly the kind of grassroots initiative that WIRES holds up as evidence that communities can solve connectivity problems when the market won't.
In April 2026, HCB closed as an organisation. The reasons are practical: rising backhaul costs, legal fees, equipment maintenance, and difficulty competing with mobile network upgrades and satellite services such as Starlink. The economics that made a volunteer-built community network viable in 2017 no longer held.
The network itself did not go dark. HCB sold it to Scotnet, which bought it in May 2026, now runs it as Wester Ross Broadband, and says it is upgrading and expanding the service. Residents kept their connection.
This still matters, for two reasons.
First, it is a reminder that community networks are not a permanent substitute for proper policy and investment. HCB did something remarkable for nine years. But a volunteer-run organisation should not be carrying the structural burden of solving a national infrastructure failure. The closure is not a failure of community spirit — it is a failure of the policy environment those communities operate in.
Second, a network the community built and controlled is now a commercial one. Residents keeping their service is the outcome that matters most. But decisions about its future now sit with a private company, not with the community that built it.
HebNet continues operating across the Small Isles and Knoydart, and Highland Broadband (a separate full-fibre provider) continues to expand in other areas. But HCB's closure prompts a direct question for Scottish Government and COSLA: what support exists for community networks that cannot survive on subscriber fees alone when costs rise?
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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