Do I really need the BBU?

I have a question and hope I can get it answered. Verizon support sure can't seem to give me a straight one....

I have the BBU in my garage. It was there when I moved into this home ~8 yrs ago. I had FIOS service installed this past week. (For some reason, Verizon support can not understand that the BBU was already there and I never had Verizon service until this past week.)

I did not notice when the installer was here, but the red light on the BBU is on indicating the battery needs to be replaced. He never explained a thing about the BBU to me. After sever lengthy chats and phone calls to support, I believe a new battery is finally on it's way. Reading through this thread I now wonder if I even need the BBU. I do NOT have a land line -- only cellular service. My plan consists solely of TV and Internet service. If I unplug the BBU will this affect my service? At one time I thought it only was for telephone, but now I'm not sure.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm really curious to know if / when I do replace the battery, will my TV boxes and router simply reboot and go back to operating or do I need to do something else to get operational assuming the BBU also affects TV and Internet. Sorry for these convoluted questions....lol TIA for help and advice......

Accepted answers

Capricorn1

If you have a whole-house generator (and the power cord that goes to the [battery charging circuit and ONT] is part of what that generator covers), you absolutely, positively do not need any battery in the BBU. I have no battery in my BBU at all and haven't had one in a year or so. Instead, I plugged the ONT's BBU into a UPS. It's weathered several 10 second to 20 minute power outages with no loss of Internet. This is even better than the BBU approach is that only backs up the land line telephone service. It seems it backs up the internet and TV for a short while (on the order of 2-3 minutes). After that, only the telephone continues to work.

All comments

viafax999

Disconnect the battery. It is not needed in your setup.

mginsburg4

Thanks viafax...... I appreciate the quick reply. I wonder why the tech plugged it in? That beeping has been driving my wife and I crazy the last 3 days..... we could not figure out where it was coming from.....lol. It was like there was a phantom device in the house with a low battery.

So just unplug from the 110 outlet and leave the battery in the BBU? Or should I take the battery out as well as unplugging from 110?

Thanks again for your help.......

SinCara

@mginsburg4 wrote:
Looks like this thread has been dormant for a while but I have a question and hope I can get it answered. Verizon support sure can't seem to give me a straight one....
I have the BBU in my garage. It was there when I moved into this home ~8 yrs ago. I had FIOS service installed this past week. (For some reason, Verizon support can not understand that the BBU was already there and I never had Verizon service until this past week.)
I did not notice when the installer was here, but the red light on the BBU is on indicating the battery needs to be replaced. He never explained a thing about the BBU to me. After sever lengthy chats and phone calls to support, I believe a new battery is finally on it's way. Reading through this thread I now wonder if I even need the BBU. I do NOT have a land line -- only cellular service. My plan consists solely of TV and Internet service. If I unplug the BBU will this affect my service? At one time I thought it only was for telephone, but now I'm not sure.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm really curious to know if / when I do replace the battery, will my TV boxes and router simply reboot and go back to operating or do I need to do something else to get operational assuming the BBU also affects TV and Internet. Sorry for these convoluted questions....lol TIA for help and advice......

Since you don't have home phone service the battery isnt needed. That's all it's for.....well and to prevent the ONT from having to reboot during a power outage, but waiting an extra minute or 2 after the power comes back on isnt a big deal for most. Switching the battery out won't reboot anything as long as the power remains on, on the ONT. If you don't want the battery just disconnect it from the battery terminals.

mginsburg4

Thanks for the help.... I'm heading out to the garage to get rid of this useless (at least for me) device.
Now that I think of it, when we moved in here, that device was plugged in and it beeped all the time. I finally had a "light bulb moment" and unplugged it and silenced it..... lol
I am really impressed with this forum. I get answers faster than contacting Verizon and I feel they are more accurate as well. Think the forum will be my first stop next time a question arises.... Again, my sincere thanks!!!

gs0b

The BBU is not only a battery backup unit. It powers the ONT at all times. Power comes from either the mains (120V AC) or the battery. It switches to battery power when mains power goes away and informs the ONT of the switch. After a short time on battery power, the ONT will shut off Internet and TV service to preserve the battery for telephone service.

The BBU must be plugged into 110V AC to power the ONT.

The battery is only needed to provide backup power for telephone service.

If you unplug the BBU from 110V AC and there is no working battery installed, the ONT will shut down and all FiOS services will stop.

In your case, you want to unplug the battery from the BBU but don't unplug the BBU from the wall.

Good Luck.

shakasdad

We have this issue. We noticed something beeping at us in the garage. We finally realized it is this verizon box with a battery inside. The green light says system status. The red light reads replace battery. Where and how do we replace this battery?

Is this box merely as backup for FIOS and internet? If we don't replace the battery what will happen. We have Verizon for internet and tv.

Thanks!

cjm727

I cancelled my land line and cable tv leaving me with only Fios Internet.

I removed the emergency Battery Back up ( in the garage) internet quit.

In my installation the battery back up supplies power to the internet from the box.

Had to reinstall the BBU unit.

cjm727

BBU unit may power your internet depending on the install.

Unplug the BBU power cord and see if you still have internet first before removing the whole thing.

CRobGauth

The BBU supplies power to the ONT.

If you remove it, ONT has no power.

That being said, you can remove the battery as it does not support Internet anyway.

CRobGauth

Read what TNS said.

BBU supplies power tot he ONT.

It has to have power to power the electronics that convert from fiber to Ethernet or cable for your coax.

But you can remove battery as it is no longer needed.

TipsyMcStagger

I don't have home phone service. I'm familiar with the process of unplugging the ONT from the wall, unplugging the battery from the ONT for one minute and then reconnecting in the reverse order to silence the battery beep.

The issue is that this has become a monthly ritual and I'm tired of it. I also see no reason to buy a replacement battery that serves no purpose.

Question: If I simply leave the backup battery unplugged (or remove it entirely) from the ONT, will the battery beep continue to sound? Or will it stay silenced?

viafax999

Why don't you try that.

Castle117

when the tech was out for my quantum gatway router upgrade i needed an ONT upgrade. the new ONT has the power pack but no BBU. i told him that our area does experence power drops in bad weather and the BBU is needed. he told me verizon no longer supports BBUs unless you order and pay for the service. the new black power pack has connectors for and external BBU.

i plugged my ONT power into a store bought UPS, works fine.

JustinG1

My ONT setup seems to have the backup battery all in one unit (No BBU unit seperate), however I also like others here have just left the battery out, since I could care less about phone, but internet is what I need to stay online.

My solution, I bought a small $45 UPS of Amazon that powers the ONT in a power outage for a good amount of time.

GigiBeanz1

I have only tv and internet service. One day I discovered this beeping and discovered it was not the smoke alarm but a black box containing a battery. I read that this was for landline service which I don't have. Can't figure out for the life of my why this battery was installed if I don't have landline. I have read here on the forums to remove the battery to stop the beeping but leave it plugged into the wall. I removed the battery and set it aside, but the beeping continues. How can i silence the beeping permanently without having to replace a battery which is not needed?

jonjones1

@GigiBeanz wrote:
I have only tv and internet service. One day I discovered this beeping and discovered it was not the smoke alarm but a black box containing a battery. I read that this was for landline service which I don't have. Can't figure out for the life of my why this battery was installed if I don't have landline. I have read here on the forums to remove the battery to stop the beeping but leave it plugged into the wall. I removed the battery and set it aside, but the beeping continues. How can i silence the beeping permanently without having to replace a battery which is not needed?

https://www.verizon.com/support/consumer/battery-backup/beeping

Go to above link. You should be ok.

Good Luck

Capricorn1

JonJones link is a good one, but as some of the earlier posts mention, the BBU does give you a few minutes of Internet and TV service before they are cut off and only the landline telephone is kept live. During a heavy storm where I live, it's not unusual for us to lose power for just a few seconds to maybe a minute. It rarely goes longer than that, but that's enough for all Internet connections to break. The BBU stays up through that, so as long as your desktop is on a UPS (or you are using a laptop, tablet, cell phone with a battery), you can go on your merry way without interruption.

When it was time for my fourth (!) battery replacement, I decided that for me, it was more important to have the Internet up. I plugged the ONT power into a UPS, removed the BBS battery and silenced the alarm. I've only had to do it once - not another beep out of it. Now, I can keep using the Internet during a power outage (for about 30-40 minutes anyway).

These ONT designs are pretty old - old enough that keeping the land line up was the most important thing. It still is for some. If you or someone in your house might need emergency services at any time, you really want that phone line working. 911 calls from cell phones still have issues in some areas. (Phone number not delivered with the call, address not delivered with the call, call goes to the wrong 911 call center, etc.)

jonjones1

I dont use their phone service or TV so it doesn't matter or apply to my situation.

I use APC battery backups which keep my internet and my own voip phone and tv and other devices on for over 12 hours.

The poster wanted to know how to change/silence/remove the BBU that is why I gave the link.

You cannot go wrong with supplemential battery power.

CuriousMind1

Interesting idea of using UPS for backup power. What is the rating of your APC? Any other recommendations? I'd consider Tripplite too.

FairFACTS

I have spent far too much time trying to get an answer from Verizon (similar to others using this site). Additionally, the Tech agent sent me (and several others)to a Verizon store to buy a replacement battery for the BBU: store employee was surprised and ststate they have NEVER sold these batteries...OK so back to online and I decided to ask Verizon if I really need a plugged in BBU as I have whole house generator. I cannot tell if they don't know and just won't say that--if they want to maximize battery sales--are waiting for the eclipse. Does anyone know if the whole house generator serves the function of the BBU? Really appreciate!

Capricorn1

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