Plymouth Community network is an off-grid decentralized community run WiFi network for Plymouth.
The network is home-made and controlled by its users. It is completely open and free – anyone can access it and post on the forums.
The website currently includes 6 forum boards that each relate to an aspect of community life in Plymouth.
The WiFi signal currently covers the 1st to 3rd floors of Roland Levinsky Building.

This project will explore the themes of freedom and autonomy online, community and cultural democracy.
It is based in Plymouth and is intended to serve the needs of the community.
This is a project by the city and for the city, it is intended to be open to community participation and expansion.

Community wireless networks promote freedom and autonomy by taking back network infrastructures from powerful third-party corporations and putting them in the hands of the community they serve. Rather than being driven by profit, community networks focus and rely on the needs of the community (Filippi & Tréguer, 2015).
Low tech and off grid networks are also highly resilient, the decentralised mesh topology is highly redundant and makes the network hard to disrupt or take down. The network is as strong as the community and will allow for free access to information and communication even if the internet were to go down. The network could be made more resilient still if combined with renewable power sources such as solar panels.