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FTTP BBU unit

dbrb2 — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 11:14:29 GMT

Hi,

I had a battery backup unit connected to my fibre modem, which was occasionally useful when there were power outages.

I recently had a fault on the line and OpenReach came to investigate. A few weeks later I noticed the BBU was gone - I don't know it went when openReach was here, because I only look when the power goes out...but does anyone know if retrieval of these units is

Re: FTTP BBU unit

pippincp — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 11:18:31 GMT

I don't know of any reason why the BBU should be removed. @Starwire may know more.

Re: FTTP BBU unit

Starwire — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 11:50:01 GMT

The BBU was there to Provide a Power Back Up for the FVA Service only. Your Hub wouldn’t have worked off it.

Openreach no longer provide the FVA Service so they are no longer obliged to Provide/Maintain the ONT BBU.

If you were using the internet during a power cut then you must’ve had a separate power back up for your router. There’s no reason you couldn’t connect the ONT to that as well.

Re: FTTP BBU unit

dbrb2 — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 12:02:48 GMT

Hi,

Yes the router and server are on UPS. They are separated from the modem by a long cable run though, so not easy to share power - given the modem itself doesn't support PoE

I don't know for sure openReach removed the BBU, just that I had one and now I don't and amb unsure where else it could have gone 🙂

Re: FTTP BBU unit

busterboy1 — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 15:00:50 GMT

@Starwire

The BBU was there to Provide a Power Back Up for the FVA Service only. Your Hub wouldn’t have worked off it.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

It goes without saying you will know best but I was lead to believe it backed up the Hub retaining the internet during a power cut.

You learn something every day. 🙂

Re: FTTP BBU unit

dbrb2 — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 15:07:04 GMT

Nope - it just powers the modem.

On old copper lines, the phone could be used in an ameergency because there were great big batteries at the exchange.

On FTTP, the fibre needs to be lit from the house end - so power is needed locally to the modem.

The hub however is just a router - and doesn't get backed up by the BBU - indeed it's not even required for the service to work if you use an alternative router. When I moved from BT to EE, the FTTP router capped all uploads for reasons unknown, so I ended up using a raspberryPi in place of the hub 🙂

Re: FTTP BBU unit

BAFlyer — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 15:23:33 GMT

I have all my Hub, NAS units and main PC supported by UPS units. In order to keep the ONT powered during a power cut I bought a 12volt Mini UPS from Amazon. Easy to setup and comes with all the cables needed to interface with the ONT, should you wish to replace the missing BBU.

Re: FTTP BBU unit

dbrb2 — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 15:59:54 GMT

In an ideal world I'd replace the enormous openReach enclosure (in quite a hard to hide place) with a single wall plate, and run my own fibre from there to the modem. But that would cause problems were I ever to need to get openReach out to fix the line, since it is their demarcation point - so not worth the risk 🙂

Re: FTTP BBU unit

Starwire — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 16:02:22 GMT

No, the Openreach BBU was purely to power up the ONT to Support the FVA Service in the event of a Power Cut.

Given most people only have cordless phones they were useless anyway.

Also the Batteries in them are cheap and deplete to fast. I used them in my Oscillator but they’d barely last a week if that and if you allowed them to fully deplete you couldn’t recharge them.

Also stupidly Openreach never provided the Batteries as a Replacement Item so if you attended a fault and they needed replacing you’d have to take the Batteries out of a BBU from your van stock, which then kinda renders that one useless.

Re: FTTP BBU unit

duberry — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 21:08:50 GMT

I bought one of these for a few pounds of ebay and it powers the smart hub. There is however another cable that looks like a router type connection one end and a funny looking cable in the ONT.

What does this cable do? It doesn’t stop it powering up the ONT? Is it for a telephone to go in? Can’t add an image as I don’t know how to edit down in the ipad.

EDIT: Despite the same output, it does not plug into a smart hub. I gather this means it won’t plug into a smart hub 2 either. What’s the point? Shame but I gather these were just to power the ONT and plug telephone in the ONT

Re: FTTP BBU unit

pippincp — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 10:33:30 GMT

What was the point in buying something that wasn't designed or intended for the purpose you wished to use it for?