00:00and it's like we're worse than a third world country a rural village soon to be cut off
00:06from the outside world that could be the reality of residents from hunting now this box behind me
00:13is what provides connection to houses on east street copper wires go under the floor and
00:19provide those houses with broadband but that might not be for much longer truly have already given
00:25notice to some residents behind me in east street that their connectivity is going to be terminated
00:33we've already got bt giving notice they have to upgrade and terminate copper connections and
00:40there's no real plan being told to residents how this is going to happen and what's going to happen
00:46to their connection works had already started in august to replace the existing copper wiring with
00:53newer fiber ones but they suddenly stopped with no explanation and provider truly told residents
01:00that the open reach copper broadband switch off will be october the 23rd but in a rural village
01:07broadband is vital if the copper is being taken away then people won't have a landline anymore and
01:14i understand that's happening nationally in some stage in the next year or so so my worries for the
01:20um uh single elderly constituents who rely purely on the landline um to keep in touch with with
01:28family or to be talked to by doctors now the buildings behind me represent what some of these
01:33residents might be forced to do in the future and that's to rely on satellite connections rather than
01:38broadband that will come under cables in the floor the main downside is though is that it's much more expensive
01:45but it's not just hunting across the county broadband coverage in rural kent is patchy with 270 of the
01:52272 properties unable to access decent broadband in ashford being in the countryside of com found that
02:0093 percent of properties in kent without good connection are in rural areas yes so it's widespread across
02:08kent uh and especially in the world the world is proper widespread with it um so in nettle stead
02:17nettle stead 40 percent of them will lose their uh internet when we got in contact with truly they
02:23explained that the provider couldn't confirm a date for when works to extend fiber coverage would be
02:29completed and that truly also confirmed that the existing connection couldn't be maintained after that
02:36cut off in late october truly confirmed that eight customers in this area will be impacted and for
02:42them it's a race against time before they could be off the grid indefinitely megan shaw in hunting
