Child Item

Site Totals

61410 Questions Answered 270 Categories

If you have no electricity for more than 8 hrs you have no phone with Fios

No one told me that when I gave up my copper line for FIOs that when the electricity goes off for more than eight hours I would have no phone service. Usually, if the electricity went off I would just plug in one of the old phones with a cord and still have access to telephone service. Not so with FIOs. Cell phone service in this area isn't reliable either, especially if there are too many people trying to call out at the same time. It is not a good product for someone who may need EMS service in a secluded area. If I had known this, I would have kept my DSL, FIOs is not any faster when others are on line using it.

Comments

Coolcsh

Maybe you were not around for the installation of your FIOS when the installer put the battery backup in your garage. Note there is an emergency button on the battery backup that you can push to get an additional 5 hours of phone calls. In my case the welcome kit that I was given also provided directions on how to enable the extra 5 hours of phone support.

Also I've DSL speeds are typically in the 1-7 Mbit speed while my with a 384/768 upload. My Fios gives me consistent 20 megs down and 5 up which is way faster then DSL.

Good luck!

mattheww50

Only the telephone service portion of FIOS is on the Battery Backup. It is done with a 12V/7AH SLA cell. These batteries are pretty widely available. That's to good news. The bad news is two fold. They tolerate being fully discharged very badly, and they have a very finite life (capacity declines over the years), and generally should be replaced about every 5 years whether they are used or not. I am not aware of any reason that you cannot simply run two wires from the Verizon Battery Backup battery connections to a larger Sealed Lead Acid Cell. These cells are pretty cheap, and if 8 hours really isn't enough, you can probably mount a shelf underneath the Verizon Battery backup unit, and put your own Sealed Lead Acid Cell there, a larger one...

I've seen 12V SLA's with up to 75Amp hour capacity, and that would give you about 4 days backup. ( they cost about $90).

You do want to stick with Sealed Lead Acid. They don't leak, and generally can take a lot more abuse than standard automotive lead acid batteries. It would take the Verizon charger quite a while to fully charge one of these beasts, but I can think of no technical reason it wouldn't work.

CharlesH

Never thought about that matheww50, that's not a bad idea.

Justin46

Another easy solution is to use a UPS. The ONT draws about 30-40 watts as I understand it, so you can buy a UPS that will carry you for as long as you want (I guess up to a computer room sized UPS that would run for years if you want), plug the BBU into it, and plug the UPS into the wall outlet. You will wind up paying a little more in electricty due to conversion losses, but it will work, lots of folks have done it.

Or get a small generator, you can use that for the ONT and the fridge and the freezer and some lights in the house and the computer and the router and the TV, etc.

Or, if your BBU for the ONT is in or near the garage, get an inverter that will run off of your auto battery and produce AC. You could then plug the BBU into the inverter as needed and get power.

Lots of ways to slay this dragon....

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.0, Build 06.89
Keller, TX

Wisser

I was there when the installer put the battery on. Infact I had a whole crew of people going in and out and throwing a new line from the pole. No one thought to say anything about the inavailability of service if the electric went off. The electric was off for four days before they could restore it. This was due to a bad storm. What about the people who's electric is off for non-payment of their bill? They won't have phone service after the 8 and additional 5 hrs you guys are talking about. I still think this was a bad idea that wasn't thought thru thoroughly.

Justin46

Wisser,

I understand your concern, but I do not share it. I have had FiOS for 3 1/2 years, my battery still works, and electrical failures have been few and far between, and usually very short here, plus we have pretty decent cell service here.

You may consider me lucky, I consider myself informed, I knew before it was installed that there was a battery backup, that I could lose phone service in an extended outage. And the documentation the installers left clearly stated the same (and I went to the trouble to actually read it!).

Verizon thought this through very well in my opinion. After all, fiber does not conduct electricty. The entire FiOS network, from the central office to the side of your house, is fiber (optical), no power needed anywhere, so it is very efficient, and will last indefinitely, unlike copper. The tradeoff is that you need to provide some source of power in an emergency, which I don't think is unreasonable, after all, what will you do for the food in the fridge and the freezer?

As to folks who lose their electric service for non-payment, I frankly could not care less, they bring that on themselves.

Anyway, I hope you can get past this issue, FiOS is IMHO a terrific service that I am very glad I have. And I don't miss my old noisy and unreliable copper lines at all (and we lost our phone service far more frequently with copper than we have with fiber).

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.0, Build 06.89
Keller, TX

Pyao

If the power is out and the battery kick in, and I have a separate UPS for the FIOS router, would I still be able to get Internet access?

I am asking because someone said the battery backup was only for phones.

If that's the case then I might want to put another UPS in the basement.

Justin46

No. The battery in the BBU is used to power the phone only. Thus a UPS or some other power source is required if you want to use the internet.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.0, Build 06.89
Keller, TX

G-Pon

The estimate of battery duration in case of an emergency was carefully cleared with the FCC and far exceeds normal needs of emergency power expected generally in the United States, we have a pretty good power grid. Also the Verizon battery may last longer than the published estimate of 8 hours, there are variables like amount of use (how many calls made while on batt only power) and battery condition at time of power loss. The 8 hour estimate is a minimum, your performance may exceed that. The electrical plug that services that equipment could be powered by other measures as suggested above and in cases where long duration outages, such as the hurricane on the Texas coast this year, plugging that device into the auxiliary generator allowed weeks of usage when the legacy power grid you lament would have not been able to provide dial tone.

In Payo’s scenario the auxiliary power device(s) would need to power all 3 devices in order to maintain internet, (1.) the ONT/Verizon Power Supply, (2.) the Router, and (3.) the Computer.

cjacobs001

just a little further clarification: Fiber Optics (FiOS) [fios] is different technology from copper telecommunications technology. Yes, when your home electricity went out when using copper for phones it usually did not affect your phone service if you plugged in "one of the old phones with a cord" because the copper brought with it (required) electricity. The copper line was charged somewhere other than at your house. As stated above, Fiber Optics does not require electricity to transport the signal to your house. Once at your house, though, electricity is still required to push the phone signal through your copper lines inside your home.

This IS improvement. Eventually things will improve to bring the fiber INSIDE our homes.

mattheww50

Call me a cynic if you want, but I don't believe any regulatory decision made by or cleared by representatives of the Bush Administration had anything to do with anything other than the bottom line of the Business that was asking for the change. So to suggest that the FCC's decision had anything at all to do with the need of Verizon's customers is simply a bold faced lie. Like most other regulatory decisions made during this period, it was all about Verizon's bottom line, and nothing at all about the need for uninterrupted public utility service.

I am a FiOS customer, and unfortunately, so is my brother in Nashua NH (within the city limits, not out in the middle of nowhere). No electricity for 5+ days after the recent ice storm.. His non-FiOS neighbors had phone service during that period, he didn't.

However unlike most FiOS customers, my telephone service is still copper, and likely to remain that way.

Wisser

mattheww50 is absolutely correct!!

Plus, You can't go back to copper once they throw the fiber line. None of my other family members are going to get fiber willingly. Dollars were definitely the bottom line to this decision.

I wouldn't be surprised when the electric companies take advantage of the fact that not only will you not have HEAT in the winter, but now no TELEPHONE service without electricity. When the price goes up because we are now dependent, don't be surprised.

Christmas was Great!

Hope Everyone Has a Wonderful New Year.

prisaz

Verizon Employee

How do I get VZ to give me one of those 8 hr battery backup power supplies. I have an origional 610 ONT and only have 2 hours. I have since plugged the entire ONT supply into a small UPS which also gives me IP access until it quits, and then I only have perhaps 2 hrs on the Verizon battery. Was the first install in my area but since 2005 my 610 ONT has been perfect so I hate to make any changes.

I have considered replacement of the Verizon 48 vdc supply to the ONT with an APC 48vdc UPS. Any sugestions?

Message Edited by prisaz on 12-30-2008 08:40 AM

CharlesH

If you are only getting 2 hours, the battery may be bad. I would suggest swapping it out with another one from Radioshack and then checking to see if there is improvement.

What i am planning on doing is getting a nice sized UPS and just plug in the power adapter from the BBU to the UPS. Now, just in case the house loses power for a minute or a few hours i can be more then ready...and never lose my internet or TV service,and oh yeh, phone! =]

My personal comment about this whole matter, you should know what you have and what it can do (or not do). I know about the "issue" of you loosing service when you don't have power and I'm ok with it. I have a cellphone and I even did my research with that and verified that it works where I live. As far as cellular providers, you get what you pay for =(. If you knew something about the technology you are more understanding about why this happens.

When telephones were the new thing, people had to hook up big battery's to their phones and wind up their phone. Then the phone company took it upon theirselves to power the phone lines to the customers. Which is how it is now naturally. Things change but you need to do what is best for yourself and your living situation. FiOS Voice may not be for you if you are always losing power and need to talk to people...that's why Verizon Wireless was made =] That's my rant and some history too!

Message Edited by CharlesH on 12-30-2008 06:08 PM

Wisser

W-E-L-L Charles H, Employee. (You get what you pay for) LOL

I hate to tell you this, but I have Verizon Wireless too and it doesn't work much of the timel where I live.

No signal eh? Smiley Sad

cjacobs001

uhhmmm CHARLES H, EMPLOYEE, can we get your supervisor's name and contact info so we can let him\her know that you are giving out false information about FiOS Capabilities? The bbu is ONLY for emergency PHONE service; no matter how big a bbu you get, if electricity goes out you have NO video or data.

f.y.i. fiber optics (FiOS) (a medium of transportation of content [content = voice, video, and\or data {internet} ] ) has been around and in use for many, many years. It was in 2004 that Verizon was the first telco to start bringing it all the way to customer homes. I would have to research whether or not any regulatory decision by any Bush administration had anything to do with bringing fiber to the premises, but I wouldn't think so.

The benefits of fiber optics over copper for the transmission of voice, video and or data are easily understood. overall greater content, clearer signal, faster speeds (ALL of which the greater community demands), but also lower total cost of ownership and maintenance, which equals lower cost to consumers (remembering that greater content may equate to higher premiums, but without the fiber optics, not only would those higher premiums be greater still, but also that greater content probably would not even be possible).

The cost factors in maintaining copper for voice are increasingly prohibitive for all telcos. The bottom line is the dollar saved; the dollar earned for all the stock holders of the publicly held telecos (do you or your family members own stock in one?) That is what business if for, to make profit for it's sharehlders.

The 'service' of bringing voice capabilities to your house, or even video and data, could never have been a guaranteed service because it is dependent on too many separate factors. Electricity (whether at the telco end or at your end) is only one of them. This will remain true for years and years, no matter who your provider is.

( -:

mattheww50

While it is true that the BBU is only good for about 8 hours, the power supply for the BBU is ALSO the power supply for the entire ONT, so if you plug the power supply into a UPS, then the entire ONT (which is TV, Internet and Telephone)is good as long as the UPS is good, and telephone service will then run off the BBU once the UPS fails. Until the UPS fails, everything on the ONT should work.

So the answer from Charles H is technically correct, he just didn't explain it very well.

Justin46

@cjacobs001 wrote:
uhhmmm CHARLES H, EMPLOYEE, can we get your supervisor's name and contact info so we can let him\her know that you are giving out false information about FiOS Capabilities? The bbu is ONLY for emergency PHONE service; no matter how big a bbu you get, if electricity goes out you have NO video or data.

I suggest you go back and read (very carefully) what Charles wrote. He said nothing about a bigger BBU, he said that you could power the BBU, and thus the ONT, with a UPS during a power failure. This will preserve all FiOS service (phone, TV, and Internet) for as long as the UPS lasts.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.0, Build 06.89
Keller, TX

Techman28

( -:

nice cjacobs001 😉

It would seem that CharlesH was advising how it use to be perhaps? I would like to state that the BBU is to keep the phone Line up and running if a customer loses power in the house. The battery life is generally 6-8 hours and the batteries can be purchased elsewhere as well for longer power times.....Having a UPS as a backup wouldn't be bad to have either.

Just clearing up some stuff here 😉

Message Edited by Techman28 on 01-02-2009 02:26 PM

cjacobs001

bbu = battery back up OK OK OK my assumption in the term "powering the bbu" was a bigger battery, since the electricity is out. You still can't have video and data.

Child Item