Connectivity
Dartmoor Zoo case study: BT Broadband and Cloud Voice
How BT’s combined connectivity and voice solutions future-proofed a zoo with big ambitions.
June 13, 2025
5 minutes
Connectivity
Dartmoor Zoo case study: BT Broadband and Cloud Voice
How BT’s combined connectivity and voice solutions future-proofed a zoo with big ambitions.
June 13, 2025
5 minutes
With 50 full-time staff caring for more than 80 animal species and 90,000 annual visitors, Dartmoor Zoo needed updated technology to communicate across its 33-acre site. With growth ambitions and conservation targets to hit, the zoo - a registered charity - needed to future-proof its solutions to ensure its survival.
We installed two fibre optic broadband lines with strategically placed access points throughout the park, providing reliable, high-speed connectivity for seamless operations - even during an outage. BT Cloud Voice - our flexible, powerful VoIP solution - has also given staff greater flexibility, ensuring they’re always contactable on their personal devices.
Dartmoor Zoo has not only improved on-site experience, but also the safety of its staff, visitors and animals. It’s now a zoo built for the future, with solutions that can seamlessly scale as its operations and ambitions grow.
When it comes to caring for staff, visitors, and over 80 species of furry, feathered, and scaly friends, Dartmoor Zoo knew they needed to upgrade their outdated technology.
Home to Dragan the tiger, Freddo the leopard, and Rodney the capybara, this family-friendly zoo has quite the history. They recently celebrated a decade of being a conservation charity.
Today, Dartmoor Zoo is firmly focused on the future - aiming to further their global conservation, education, and research efforts, as well as growing charitable donations, adoptions, and animal experiences.
With 33 acres of land, reliable communication and connectivity are a must for the safety of staff, visitors, and animals - and essential for providing immersive and interactive visitor experiences.
As the zoo’s contract with another provider was coming to an end, our locally based BT Local Business account managers visited the site to help CEO David Gibson understand its needs and find the perfect future-proof solution to support the charity’s ambitious plans for growth.
We have a ten-year master plan […] There’s going to be big changes… That means we need to be efficient, we need to be agile, and we need to be future-proof.
The challenge
With a vast site to look after and more than 50 full-time employees to manage, secure, reliable, and high-speed connectivity is vital for the smooth running of Dartmoor Zoo’s daily operations.
Education and research are incredibly important to the zoo. It prides itself on delivering top-quality internationally recognised academic research and delivering unique experiences for learners and visitors through interactive learning programmes. In order to support education and field conservation, and to ensure animal, visitor, and staff safety, Dartmoor Zoo needed tech that could keep up with the pace.
Better technology would also help streamline less efficient processes, like navigating inbound customer calls to the zoo by routing them directly to a person or department. Keepers were relying on two-way radios to communicate across the site, meaning communication wasn’t always effective and conversations couldn’t be kept private from visitors.
As keepers are often on the go, once they left the office a lack of a direct line meant it was tricky to get in touch if there was an emergency.
Technology is absolutely a key element of ensuring that our teams are able to work effectively wherever they are.
The solution
We provided two fibre optic broadband lines (a main and failover) with access points across the site – guaranteeing reliable, high-speed internet everywhere, even if one of the lines experienced a problem or outage.
This means that traffic can now be balanced accordingly. From office-based staff accessing emails and visitors using the park Wi-Fi, to keepers making voice calls, viewing live feeds or uploading vital observation data. “From a business continuity perspective, it gives us peace of mind,” says David.
“We can’t operate as a business without technology. Our tills are electronic and our card payment system is online. Having high-speed connectivity means that we can operate safely and securely, 24/7.”
Although unlikely, should the worst happen and both broadband lines go down, devices can seamlessly switch to EE’s award-winning mobile network , ensuring the zoo can continue to provide safe and exciting experiences day in, day out.
Introducing our powerful cloud-based phone system, BT Cloud Voice , has improved the zoo’s operational efficiency. It means staff can make and take calls on their own devices wherever they are, even if they’re working from home or off-site, and keepers no longer need to carry bulky walkie-talkies. Calls are encrypted for enhanced security and staff data remains secure, improving privacy.
Inbound calls flow over to available numbers, giving customers the option to speak to a member of staff, leave a message, or make queries about ticket prices and opening times, which are answered quickly by an auto attendant-style service. Plus, Cloud Voice also offers greater flexibility, so the solution can easily scale as the zoo grows.
For me personally, Cloud Voice allows me to be completely mobile without the risk of missing any urgent calls. I can take my desk number wherever I go – as long as I’ve got my device in my pocket, I’m working
The result
Combining the local knowledge of BT Local Business with our leading network and services, Dartmoor Zoo now has broadband connectivity and voice solutions it can rely on – with excellent quality of service, guaranteed call quality, super-fast speeds, and a network that’s efficient and easy to manage.
Having high-speed connectivity has enhanced the zoo’s research and learning. “When we’re delivering talks, it can be frustrating for visitors if they can’t see the animal in question,” says Jo Clark, Head of Education and Research. “Now with business-grade connectivity, we can use our mobiles to log on to the CCTV system and see where the animals are hiding. Better connectivity has given us the instant engagement we need to provide more genuine, immersive experiences for visitors.”
Enhanced connectivity has also improved security at the zoo, allowing for the real-time monitoring of critically endangered species like Freddo the leopard – who may not be surfing the web, but who’ll certainly benefit from the increased safety measures. “Now we have reliable connectivity , we can log into our CCTV system with our mobiles to control the cameras, making sure our highly dangerous, category one animals, are where they should be” says David.
With connectivity and voice solutions to rely on, the fantastic team of employees and volunteers can focus on doing what they do best: caring for their animals, delivering exceptional experiences and making Dartmoor Zoo a roaring success. Dartmoor Zoo is ready for the future, and we’ve got their back.
We’re really looking forward to continuing our relationship with BT long into the future.
