Does your ADSL connection seem to inadvertently suffer from drop outs ? Believe it or not, the problem could be related to Christmas decorations, rather than any other reason your ISP has come up with. Seriously, we're not making this up !

A brief by BTWholesale to ISPs has found out that the problem is all down to electrical equipment in homes and businesses, that fails to meet the European Unions Electromagnetic Compatibility standards - more commonly known as EMC, and recognised by the symbols 'CE'. After investigations, BT have found that, whilst not solely limited to, as BT calls them 'seasonal lights', our love for making our houses look like Blackpool Illuminations, possibly with non CE marked lights, could be wreaking havoc with our broadband services, due to excessive amounts of radio frequency interference given out by such equipment, when in a "flashy" mode.

It maybe not be your lights thats causing the problem either, as the briefing explains.

So, are we going to hear ISP offer support advice along the lines of "disconnect your satellite box, try another router, oh, and don't forget to unplug your Christmas tree as well!".