"This book is the Official 2025 Outcome of the Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3) of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF). DC3 is a multistakeholder group, fostering a collaborative analysis of community networks (CNs), exploring how such initiatives can improve and expand connectivity while empowering Internet users.
CNs are connectivity initiatives usually developed in a bottom-up fashion by groups of individuals – i.e., communities – that may contribute to the design, development and management of the network infrastructure as a common resource. Hence, CNs are usually managed according to the governance models established by their community members and may be operated by groups of self-organised individuals or entities such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local businesses or public administrations.
CNs should not be considered as a competing or antagonistic model either to the state or to the market. On the contrary, they should be seen as a powerful complementary solution to fill the existing connectivity gaps. Over the past decade, the CNs debate has evolved considerably, and the discourse surrounding these initiatives has undergone significant transformation. This evolution reflects a shift from grassroots technical experimentation to the recognition of CNs as essential instruments for digital inclusion, sovereignty, and cybersecurity, all underpinned by sustained community engagement. These issues have been systematically studied in previous DC3 annual reports, which have analysed the conceptual, regulatory, and operational frameworks for CNs through a rights-based, community-centric approach. All previous DC3 publications can be found at www.comconnectivity.org. Understanding how the community connectivity debate has evolved is essential to understand why the identification of self-sustaining financial solutions is probably the most important issue to be addressed and why such solutions may have a remarkably relevant impact for the future of connectivity. In this perspective, this volume offers a collection of evidence-based analyses and some concrete proposals aimed at promoting selfsustaining financing solutions for Community Connectivity." (Back cover)