Bell Canada → [Internet] FTTH and power outage

I hate to say I have lost power at my place due to ice storm in Ontario 2 days ago. I expected the backup battery indoor ONT to last about 6 hours according to the Bell tech who installed it. It lasted around 16+ hours before the ground line stopped working. Lots of fallen branches where the Bell above ground r.o.w. is but my line stayed connected. No way to find out until the power comes back whether phone and internet are still connected but the big fat Bell fibre optics lines are still up so I am somewhat optimistic (finger crossed) that it should work when I fired up the Sagemcom.

Neighbor lost the old style copper wire last night when another branch fell.

If it's still up hopefully it's still working, worst case maybe it's come loose a bit. Hopefully you guys are holding in there! Heard on the radio today it could be boxing day until power is restored. Reminds me a lot of our ice storm in 98 here in eastern Ontario

If I get my dial tone back, it will be a great sign. That will happen before I will go power up the Sagemcom. I powered down the UPS not long after the power went down, I honestly cannot remember whether the DSL light was on. I knew it was a bad one and too many things were on my mind to care about internet. Besides there is no way to check whether internet works or not until the power is back even if Bell send a crew out. Neighbor called today about his downed phone line (copper wire), the reply is either 25th or 26th. Rogers meanwhile have its fibre/cable crew out last night and this morning to fix a line when nobody can watch anything anyway.

Meanwhile I am hitching a ride on my cousin's Fibe 5/1 where we are taking refuge for now. Computer / internet access is almost as important as food these days, its mental food.

Good luck!

Thanks for letting us know about the 16+h, that's the first real-life account of the UPS battery life I've heard about.

if there's a power failure, the sagemcom won't keep power, even if you have it on a generator -- the ONT will power down the LAN ports to save power, and make sure that the dial tone lasts longer.

Thanks taraf for this information.

That must be why I kind of remember seeing the DSL light was off when I went to power off the beeping UPS (Sagemcom plugged to UPS). I was kind of worry about line severed but then I still have dial tone. Dial tone is way more important in a full blown blackout than the internet which I can use my smartphone for.

On normal brown-outs / power fluctuations there were never problem with internet access due to my UPS.

still waiting for power.... house is loosing heat slower than I thought......

If you plug the ONT in to backup power such as a generator or external UPS, it won't know the power is out, and won't power down the LAN ports.

Yes I was I would've been 7 I believe, we lost power for just under 3 weeks

I went to Quebec for 14 days during the ice storm to help restore telephone service there...it was an amazing experience. I knew what to expect this past weekend when the trees started to split and crack...

Now now thats not nice...but lighting your bbq in your house to stay warm and not opening a window for ventilation. ..well...

Times have also changed greatly since then. 98 we had rabbit ears on our tv so we never watched tv except for hockey night in canada and had a dial up connection only because my mother worked for the feds and they paid for the connection so she could work from home 1 day a week. So we didn't use the Internet and didn't watch tv, power was used basically for heat (electric furnace), lights and cooking. The rest of the time when we were home we were all outside. So when the storm hit in 98 we still were outside (it made for a great skating rink after a few days) and we moved into the living room by the wood fire place at night to sleep. Our neighbors owned the pizzeria in osgoode and their ovens were gas powered so theyd bring us pizza every night for food, or we'd bbq like usual. Nothing essentially changed for us other than the lights not working really.

Try imaging today without power, everything we use needs some form of power so I can kind of understand their worries in Toronto, but really we stayed in osgoode for 2 weeks without power until hydro came by saying to stay put for a few days or get out as the poles has physically broken as well as downed lines so once they started working to replace the poles and fix the lineswe'd be stuck in the house until they were done as there was no way out and if something were to happen first responders wouldn't be able to get to the house. So for the last few days we moved in with my aunt in nepean who never lost power once. Our street was one of the last ones to have power restored as it was rural and the poles had to be ordered in and digging done to install the new ones from what I remember.

A few of my friends from hydro one got to toronto yesterday so hang out tight you couldn't have a better bunch helping you out, and once hydro has fixed any physical hazards im sure Bell will call in guys from out of town to help out as (once the real problems are identified, it does happen people call in saying their cordless phones dont work or the internet doesn’t when the power is out). I know crews from cable repair are already working there and in Quebec

Out of curiosity. If there are downed trees on the Bell fibre optics lines in a backyard r.o.w., who has to deal with the trees?

if you have no hydro then its a hydro problem that needs to be fixed first, once your hydro is back your ftth phone will work.

Depends where the trees are. Bell will fix the line and if the trees are on the city easement bell will contract an arborist to trim the trees. If the trees are within your property line, again bell will fix the line but won't touch the tree.

They also used to create networks across the world for other countries if someone was willing to pay. A few guys in Ottawa at BTS worked in Saudi Arabia for a couple years creating their network

88 hours later (Sat Dec 21 10:00 to Wed Dec 25 14:00), its over. 3 hydro truck, a forestry truck, and 2 pickups from Toronto Hydro showed up on our street near noon today. After I started the furnace (most important) and checking the reading of 3*C on the thermostat reading. I went to check the phone. Dial tone ok. Check the ONT, it looks ok. Fire up the UPS hence Sagemcom, no problem.

question for the expert: is that backup battery for the ONT a rechargeable? Or I need to ask for a replacement from Bell?

They are rechargeable. However after a certain period of time or if you have lots of prolonged power outages they will need to be replaced. Not sure about Bell, but most ONTs start beeping once the backup battery needs to be replaced.