said by DonLibes:I have internet-only through FIOS and I'm wondering why they bothered to install a battery backup at my residence if they're telling me now that "... Internet service will not be available until your power is restored." Even if it lasts for 10 minutes (as More Fiber said above), what good is it to give me an 8-hour battery that will only be used for 10 minutes?
By design, the ONT shuts down data and TV service after 10 minutes. Current draw of the ONT is reduced about 30% in that mode. I imagine the ONT design made a basic assumption that most VZ customers would have phone service, and that would be the most critical need during an extended outage.
Internet-only is a smaller portion of VZ customer base, and they did not elect to have provisions for those customers.
Someone, can't remember who, dug up some early literature that suggested the ONT could be reconfigured for a different powerdown delay, or even to retain data service without powering that circuit down.
In the early days when FiOS was still being rolled out, techs were very sharp and could work wonders. Early roll-out, VZ had their best people on the technology, and you were likely to reach a highly knowledgeable tech on the first call. As it is today, tech support is tiered because there are so many calls for relatively easy stuff. They filter what makes it through to the higher tiers.
What does this mean? You can call tech support, and ask your question (above) and the odds of receiving a meaningful answer are slim to none. Lower tier tech support has forgotten or never learned what you can do for your specific circumstance. I'll put money on it, you'll get "what you ask for can't be done".
So, what can you do about it? Read this
long post.It is possible to trick the ONT into not seeing a power outage that will shut down some of the internal services. It has some downsides, so choose carefully and act responsibly, i.e., it's not Verizon's fault you have to monkey with your BBU and blow something up by mistake.
Maybe I should make it a FAQ.