Old TV set knocks out broadband in village
THE mystery of why an entire village lost its broadband every morning at 7am has been solved – it was caused by one household with an old TV set.
Alun and Elaine Rees were unaware their 16in Bush TV was causing problems for their neighbours in Aberhosan, Powys, for more than 18 months.
Michael Jones, an engineer with telecommunications company Openreach, said: “Not being able to solve the fault for our customers left us feeling frustrated and downbeat.
“As a final resort we decided to bring in a crack squad of engineers from the chief engineer’s office who were based in other parts of the UK.”
He added: “Having exhausted all other avenues we wanted to do one final test to see if the fault was being caused by a phenomenon known as Shine ( Single High- Level Impulse Noise) where electrical interference is emitted from an appliance that can then have an impact on broadband connectivity.
“The source was traced to a property in the village.”
The set, which was in the couple’s bedroom, was turned on every morning to watch Good Morning Britain.
Retired receptionist Elaine, 63, said: “One morning we looked out of the window and saw BT engineers holding some kind of meters.
“Next thing they’re knocking the door and asking us to turn the telly off at the wall.”
Retired farmer Alun, 67, added: “He told me we’d better get rid of the set immediately.
“He said we’d have the whole village on our doorstep if anyone found out we were the cause of the problem. Our son lives next door and he was having building work done so we chucked it on his skip.”