Policy documents matter—but they need to be tested against what people experience in homes, tenements, and rural communities.
Scottish Government digital and connectivity materials set direction for public investment and partnership with industry. Local authorities and community organisations often see the gaps first: patchy mobile coverage, complex voucher processes, or costs that remain out of reach.
Our role as a campaign is to amplify community questions, signpost official programmes, and push for outcomes that are easy to understand and fair to access.
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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