Do I really need the BBU?

[mginsburg4]

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...... 

[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]

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@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...... 

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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!

[tns2]

You need the BBU as it supplies power to the ONT.  But you do not need to have the battery if you don't care about the backup phone service it provides for about 8 hour in case of a power failure.  The battery is only designed to backup the Phone service, although for short outages the Internet and TV service also continues.  You should be able to silence all but the oldest models by removing the battery (with it unplugged), plugging it in, and hitting reset.

You can buy a replacement battery from Verizon for a High cost, or search for an equivalent one at the usual sources.  I don't remember the exact model but you can search for FIOS Battery.

[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.