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aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

1 edit

aaronwt to mark_e

Premium Member

to mark_e

Re: 4 batteries in b/u!

said by mark_e:

When I added a 3rd phone line, my ONT was swapped and a GIANT (14" x 24") power supply installed. There are 4 batteries with space for 4 more.

Which leads me to 2 questions:

1) Will I be responsible for replacing all 4 when time claims their life? (I would guess YES)

2) For the VZ techs, will installing 4 more batteries double the run time and/or keep the data service up?

The only good news is that there's a switch to turn the audible alarm on and off!

If it's the same size batteries as the smaller BBU, they are very inexpensive. Around $14 each online. Since they are the same batteries my APC backups use. I get them in pairs for around $28 a pair. Last year I replaced a couple dozen of the APC batteries in my UPSs. And I also replaced my BBU battery. But when the FiOS power supply died, they replaced the power supply and put a new BBU in as well with a new battery so I got my battery back.

But I also have the FiOS BBU connected to my own UPS which gives me 16 to 18 hours of runtime before the ONT BBU will have to use it's own battery. I could remove the battery from the ONT BBU but I see no point since the batteries are so inexpensive. The last battery lasted five years. So $14 over five years is only 23 cents a month. If people can't afford that then they really should not even have cable TV or internet service.

danclan
join:2005-11-01
Midlothian, VA

danclan

Member

The larger issue here is that it's a change from the 100+ year old status quo. The Customer is now responsible for ensuring up time, whereas before the supplier was.

While not a huge deal in the big scheme it reflect a significant shift to your average consumer.

Could V have added a 2nd battery and doubled the up time? Sure but to what end. The average power outage was just under 3 hours in the US and is on the decline. The "super outages", those affecting 50,000 or more had a huge increase, but even those are very short lived and are back on the decline due to increased federal oversight.

Only special events (hurricane, tornado etc) warrant longer up time than the 8hrs they expect the single 12v batter to provide. You can argue that copper may be up after 8 hours as some suggest but it's typically on the same power as your home and even with generators it may be out as well due to damages infrastructure. Overall copper is more unreliable than fiber even if it is cheaper. And, in areas struck by infrastructure damage outages, fiber is far faster to restore due to fewer strands needed to supply service to many to be repaired.

I'd beat this horse some more but im all out of whips this week...