Whether you are in a remote setting or living in a densely-populated city, the sudden disappearance of your internet connection can be incredibly frustrating.
For the 400 residents of Aberhosan, a small rural village near Machynlleth, Wales, the loss of broadband and problems with their BT lines have occurred for 18 months, with signals simply vanishing on a daily basis -- and a single television set was to blame.
You may expect more issues with internet connections if you live in a remote area in the United Kingdom, as they are rarely first in line for cable upgrades. Indeed, a retired lawyer who lives in the Lake District was recently quoted £500,000[1] by BT to install high-speed broadband in his home.
See also: What is the quantum internet? Everything you need to know about the weird future of quantum networks[2]
However, in Aberhosan, the perplexing issue was that broadband connections disappeared at 7am, every day, like clockwork.
Scores of engineers came and went over 18 months, answering the resident's frequent complaints, including those made by 79-year-old retiree Bill Childs.
As reported by the Guardian[3], Childs said that he had broadband problems for "as long as I can remember," with between 30 and 40 engineer visits made to his house alone over the past few years.
BT's Openreach engineers were left stumped. Eventually, Openreach sent a squad of engineers from the firm's chief engineers office, who descended upon the village to check and test every line, replacing cables as they went.
Openreach called the crack team the "telecoms equivalent of 'SAS'."
Determined to get to the root of the issue, Openreach engineer Michael Jones said the engineers wanted to see if the fault was caused by