Superfast Broadband Goes Underground to Wookey Hole Caves, Somerset

No, it’s not Chewbacca’s home. The Connecting Devon and Somerset project has just expanded BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network to reach an underground system of caves called the Wookey Hole Caves, although this is more of a fringe benefit as the main focus has been to connect 200 premises in the associated rural village of Wookey Hole.

The area, which is incidentally just a bit south of Priddy where locals recently rejected the Government’s offer of an alternative Satellite broadband fix (here), is a well-known tourist trap due to its underground system of attractive caves and, as luck might have it, the new broadband connectivity arrives just as an investment of £4m has helped to open up some new attractions.

Chris Goodchild, Duty Manager at Wookey Hole, said:

“Superfast broadband will open-up many possibilities for our prehistoric caves, including our new £4 million show cave. These speeds are a necessity for any business these days, so we were very enthusiastic to connect as quickly as possible.

We will improve customer experience by making our online purchase system quicker and detect any faults with our cave lighting or 4D cinema straight away. It will make our use of IT much more efficient, meaning fewer hours spent waiting for web pages to load and more time improving the attraction.

Installing superfast wireless underground also means that customers can instantly engage with their friends and family via social media about their experiences, increasing the awareness of our caves to a potentially worldwide audience in moments.”

The wider £94m Connecting Devon and Somerset project is currently working with BT to make “superfast broadband” speeds available to over 90% of local premises by the end of 2016, with some 180,000+ homes and businesses already having benefitted via 800 new street cabinets.

Never the less some may view this as just another publicity attempt, perhaps one with the hope of redirecting some attention away from the on-going problems of finding a viable supplier to help expand superfast broadband and achieve the Government’s 95% target by 2017/18 (here). Not that this will bother residents of Wookey Hole, who can already enjoy the faster connectivity.