FIOS when electricity is off

We recently had FIOS installed in a new apartment. This morning the circuit breaker tripped and we immediately lost phone and Internet. At the last place where I had FIOS it had a backup battery which kicked in if there was a blackout, for example. So what is the story with this FIOS installation? Does this mean that if there is a blackout we will be completely cut off? What do I have to do to obtain continuing coverage for at least a few hours? Unfortunately, I did not arrange for this installation (my partner did) so I don’t know what arrangements he made.

Accepted answers

Edg1

This picture should help there is a small input on the power supply where the D cell backup plugs into. Its number 6 on picture.

All comments

Edg1

The back up battery only works the phone. TV and internet will always go off in a power outage. Since there is no power to your TVs or computer. The new apartment you either have a dead battery or the power supply has been upgraded to the new one without a battery. Which is why everything went out immediately.

cjjjjj

The phone went off, too. This is the first time I heard "upgrade" refer to a reduction in service. So how do we arrange to have the phone work if the power goes off? It is outrageous that you cannot even call 911. Even a cell phone lets one do that.

cjjjjj

And the computers all have batteries, so it is inaccurate to say one loses internet because there is not power to the computer. You lose it because there is no power to the fios setup

jonjones1

@cjjjjj wrote:
And the computers all have batteries, so it is inaccurate to say one loses internet because there is not power to the computer. You lose it because there is no power to the fios setup

You need to have internet to have access to Fios. The battery backup is for your phone service. However you must make sure the battery is operational or that you have batteries in the power reserve units. (They take 12 flashlight batteries) if you have the old ont you may have one of those clunky brick batteries. But again only for phone use up to 8 hours.

now what I have done is buy an APC backup battery unit from Best Buy which on the higher end can last 10-12 hours and will operate the ont and the router and cordless phones and tv. I purchased 4 of them and when power went out in last winters storm everything connected to them was operational. This is the way to go.

Edg1

Like the other poster said the ONT connects 2 ways. The old BBU with the 12v battery. That is an uninterrupted battery backup. Power goes off ONT goes into battery mode and only supports voice. TV and Internet shut down in this mode.

The second is the upgraded power adapter. The reason it is an "upgrade" is because the old BBU's regularly fail. It has no built in battery option. There is an additional D cell tray that takes 12 D batteries. But it is not uninterrupted. When you lose power ONT will shut down and you will have to turn the switch on the D cell tray to power up the ONT. Again in this mode ONT will only support voice.

I'm not sure which type you have but you either need a new 12V battery or get the D cell tray and have 12 D batteries on hand.

Edg1

@cjjjjj wrote:
And the computers all have batteries, so it is inaccurate to say one loses internet because there is not power to the computer. You lose it because there is no power to the fios setup

It's not inaccurate because yes the computers have batteries but your router do not and again the ONT only supports voice when running on battery.

Trudy11

You are right. this is why it was so dumb for the government to let companies like Verizon replace land line service with internet based phones. Now there are few phones that work during emergencies. Dumb move. Plus Verizon took out the battery backs up intentionally like they were doing us a favor. Probably hated all the calls they got after power outages. Yet now we are sitting ducks because there will be emergencies I bet where cell phones won't work.