Please, explain a bit more here.
I presume you are implying just peak values as the basic arithmetic of 1.5Ah equates to a lot more than 10Ah per week, ie that being 24 x 7 =168 hours?
I presume you are implying just peak values as the basic arithmetic of 1.5Ah equates to a lot more than 10Ah per week, ie that being 24 x 7 =168 hours?
Parksy
Moderator
A bit lengthy and may cause drowsiness (E&OE)......
Fibre Broadband and equipment is continously evolving but at the same time there needs to be compatibilty going forwards and retrospectively. Equally there are difference implementions depending on the Communication Provider - e.g Openreach, Cityfibre etc. Different implementations in different countries.
The two basic schemes we see are Fibre to Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre to Premises (FTTP or evern FTTH - H = Home).
For FTTC the main fibre optic trunk is run from the exchange/headend to the Green Cabinets that were used by the old wired analogue system. From the cabinet the final connection to our homes is over the existing copper/ali wires that our old phones used. The wires terminate in our homes at a Master Socket. There is no ONT. From the Master Socket the connection then goes to a Router.
In this instance only the router needs to be powered for a connection to be maintained. As for vunerability of service if the Cabinet is out of action - vandalised or even vechiles crashing into them - then the service to the home is dead.
There is no way of rerouting the broadband to our homes.
For FTTP the main fibre runs in ducting to an underground chamber or pole in the street. From the chamber/pole the fibre is run through more ducting to our homes. On the outside of the home there is a CSP - Customer Service Point or Customer Splice Point. The fibre cable at this point is then spliced onto another fibre cable which passes through the wall. An ONT is mounted on the inside of the house and requires power. The power is supplied from a mains adapter - not the router.
In this instance both the ONT and the router need to be powered to maintain a connection.
The ONTs no longer support direct connection of any phone - this would need to be done via the router.
The fibre connection from the exchange is a Passive Optical Network. If this is damaged then there is no re-routing and connections to your home will be dead.
Rerouting of the Wider Area Network - between Exchanges/Headends is possible.
******
More boring stuff....
The backup requirements for vunerable customers in dodgy areas were specified by Ofcom, who called for a 1 Hour duration (?). The BT Smarthub 2 requires about 1.2A and the BT supplied UPS/BBUs are supplied with a 7Ah battery but are about 76% efficient at 75% load. You can do the maths to see how long the will last. I've read that the ONT load may be about 7W but there are different types, so this may not be accurate.
And more.....
The Fibre cable running to your home may be installed by one company E.g Openreach, but your ISP may not be BT as there are a number of providers who also use Openreach fibre. Different ISPs provide different routers and these will all be compatible with the ONT if you have one. ONTs may sometimes be locked to a specific Communication Provider.
You don't need to use the router provided by the company you chose. You can buy your own - see Amazon for example.
And more on backup supplies.....
The BT Smarthub 2 includes DECT compatability in order to connect wireless handsets. BTs wireless handsets do not have a base station, just a charging station as the router contains that function. In the event of a power and depending on duration your DECT handsets may run out of charge and become useless.
BT have/had a Digital Voice Adapter which is a powered device that affectively allows an analogue wired phone to connect wirelessly to your Smarthub. It needs power to run.
There are also Analogue Telephone Adapters - powered devices that converts an analogue phone into a VoIP phone - analogue phone in > Ethernet Out. It needs power to run.
If you have Wifi Disks or Power Line Adapters - no power, no workee.
Finally, Mobile Phones. If you're totally dependent on a Mobile Phone only, then it needs sufficient charge in the event of a power cut to last the duration - what ever that is. Just recently we had a power cut in the morning and I realised my phone only had 12% charge remaing. So, now I have a Power Bank for that in case of emergencies.
Good night from him.....
Fibre Broadband and equipment is continously evolving but at the same time there needs to be compatibilty going forwards and retrospectively. Equally there are difference implementions depending on the Communication Provider - e.g Openreach, Cityfibre etc. Different implementations in different countries.
The two basic schemes we see are Fibre to Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre to Premises (FTTP or evern FTTH - H = Home).
For FTTC the main fibre optic trunk is run from the exchange/headend to the Green Cabinets that were used by the old wired analogue system. From the cabinet the final connection to our homes is over the existing copper/ali wires that our old phones used. The wires terminate in our homes at a Master Socket. There is no ONT. From the Master Socket the connection then goes to a Router.
In this instance only the router needs to be powered for a connection to be maintained. As for vunerability of service if the Cabinet is out of action - vandalised or even vechiles crashing into them - then the service to the home is dead.
There is no way of rerouting the broadband to our homes.
For FTTP the main fibre runs in ducting to an underground chamber or pole in the street. From the chamber/pole the fibre is run through more ducting to our homes. On the outside of the home there is a CSP - Customer Service Point or Customer Splice Point. The fibre cable at this point is then spliced onto another fibre cable which passes through the wall. An ONT is mounted on the inside of the house and requires power. The power is supplied from a mains adapter - not the router.
In this instance both the ONT and the router need to be powered to maintain a connection.
The ONTs no longer support direct connection of any phone - this would need to be done via the router.
The fibre connection from the exchange is a Passive Optical Network. If this is damaged then there is no re-routing and connections to your home will be dead.
Rerouting of the Wider Area Network - between Exchanges/Headends is possible.
******
More boring stuff....
The backup requirements for vunerable customers in dodgy areas were specified by Ofcom, who called for a 1 Hour duration (?). The BT Smarthub 2 requires about 1.2A and the BT supplied UPS/BBUs are supplied with a 7Ah battery but are about 76% efficient at 75% load. You can do the maths to see how long the will last. I've read that the ONT load may be about 7W but there are different types, so this may not be accurate.
And more.....
The Fibre cable running to your home may be installed by one company E.g Openreach, but your ISP may not be BT as there are a number of providers who also use Openreach fibre. Different ISPs provide different routers and these will all be compatible with the ONT if you have one. ONTs may sometimes be locked to a specific Communication Provider.
You don't need to use the router provided by the company you chose. You can buy your own - see Amazon for example.
And more on backup supplies.....
The BT Smarthub 2 includes DECT compatability in order to connect wireless handsets. BTs wireless handsets do not have a base station, just a charging station as the router contains that function. In the event of a power and depending on duration your DECT handsets may run out of charge and become useless.
BT have/had a Digital Voice Adapter which is a powered device that affectively allows an analogue wired phone to connect wirelessly to your Smarthub. It needs power to run.
There are also Analogue Telephone Adapters - powered devices that converts an analogue phone into a VoIP phone - analogue phone in > Ethernet Out. It needs power to run.
If you have Wifi Disks or Power Line Adapters - no power, no workee.
Finally, Mobile Phones. If you're totally dependent on a Mobile Phone only, then it needs sufficient charge in the event of a power cut to last the duration - what ever that is. Just recently we had a power cut in the morning and I realised my phone only had 12% charge remaing. So, now I have a Power Bank for that in case of emergencies.
Good night from him.....
Thanks for your very informative post. By coincidence our FTTP provider turned up about 30 minutes ago to route the external cable to the house. We have moved from EE to Virgin for broadband who gave a very competitive price for 18 month contract. Today I also moved our last mobile from EE to IDMobile, so now after being with EE (IE 1:2:1, T Mobile etc) since 1999 we are split between Tesco , IDmobile and Virgin. Took the view that loyalty wasn't sufficient to stay with EE when other options began to look a lot more attractive and value for money and better matched our usage.
A very informative post and did not think that perhaps in the future the router may also need to be replaced if you have FTTH? Our exchange is about 2 miles away with the cabinet being about 500yrds distance. There are two cabinets for the village and they are about 100 yrds apart on different roads.
I'd be interested to here how your migration goes.
Does your current EE setup include Digital Phones - aka VoIP, and was it FTTC?
My contract with BT is due to end in June and I'm wondering what to do. Currently we have their VoIP phones but they're only for incoming calls which are virtually zero, or at least from no one we couldn't get to call us on our mobile phones.
Other providers, including BT, do a broadband only package which is cheaper than our current contract, so I'm trying to persuade Mrs V that we don't actually need a real phone. It is possible to cancel the phone part of the contract and port it to a seperate VoIP supplier but I've heard that if you cancel the phone part, it also cancels your broadband as well. So timing would be crucial.
We're limited here on who we can use. BT, EE or Plusnet - which given they're all part of the BT group isn't surprising.
We are with Plusnet and our contract expires in July. Sometimes I wish we could dump the landline to save a few bob, but with poor 3 or 4G signal not a possibility and we are only about 7 miles or less as the crow flies outside a main city!
May there's some misunderstanding here.
If your mobile phones are set for WiFi Calling then you don't need a conventional landline as the calls will be made via your router and internet, to anywhere or from anywhere on the phone network - landline or mobile.
Don't confuse WiFi Calling with using Apps like WhatsApp or Skype. These are not using WiFi Calling.
Apologies as I probably did not word my post correctly. If we have no power, generally the router would not have power.
However thanks to your advice we have purchased the mini UPS as suggested. I don't think the UPS would last several hours unless we are able to recharge it via an inverter so looking for a decent inverter?
You have a "no landline" option by using one of the many standalone VoIP providers; effectively from a user point of view just like a conventional landline, but using a technique that functions directly from your broadband router. [No PC etc is needed]
The one we use with a lot of satisfaction is Sipgate a German provider, here we choose our own dialling code, but we could have had the one that serves the locality where we live. Ours is a free private user provision, we pay only for the outgoing calls we make.
LINK
Call charges are cheaper than EE or BT were when we last checked, way way cheaper for international calls which makes up the largest part of our outgoing calls. Call quality, audio clarity wise, is very much better and consistent to what our Landline using pre VoIP technology often was. For us it was "win win" at every point.
True come a power cut then without another powering option it goes down, but then the inevitable and imminent change the likes of BT are making to landlines, to go their "flavour" of VoIP, exactly the same will occur.
A few different but connected requirements then.
1. Get rid of the landline to save some money - which is what I'm trying to do.
2. Having done that, keep internet alive during power cuts in order to make calls.
3. A new requirement - being able to keep a TV running.
4. Not knowing how long the power is going to be off
#1 You'll be faced with this choice soon when the wired landlines are withdrawn in a year or two (Except in special circumstances.
#2 To keep the internet alive during a power cut for use with Wifi Calling you got a UPS to keep the router and ont alive.
#3 For your TV you want to use an inverter but now you've introduced the idea of charging the UPS from it as well because you don't know how long the power will be off. That's not a very efficient way to do it.
If you're going to use an inverter then you didn't really need a UPS because you can power the router and ont from that.
#4 You still have the unknown of how long the power will be off and how long whatever battery you're going to use for the inverter will last. So you have to determine what your 'pain' threshold will be.
Nice little Honda genny?
Saves these and quite some other long duration power outage issues, sadly not the deep freeze but the TV and "vital" gas heated CH system.
Been through two 10 day stints in the distant past, now as they keep telling us we are a critical requirement couple, hopefully those times really are past.
Saves these and quite some other long duration power outage issues, sadly not the deep freeze but the TV and "vital" gas heated CH system.
Been through two 10 day stints in the distant past, now as they keep telling us we are a critical requirement couple, hopefully those times really are past.
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Thanks for all the valuable input and suggestions. Sometimes we are advised on the length of the power cut and if only an hour or so not worth dragging out battery etc however if it is going to be several or more hours then worth the effort especially at night.
TBH in this modern day and age we should not be having power cuts and certainly not several hours!
With so much in the rural environs done with overhead cables, trees coming down in storms etc is part of life, and we hear the forecast is storms are destined to increase in their ferocity .
Could all be underground, then that issue reduces but the flooding implication, also destined to get worse, bring alternative risks.
Still we would both be " fish out of water" in an urban environment, so we live with it, making provisions like our gennies, a few LA batteries to hand, a 12 volt TV, and others their emergence power banks. Fortunately, mobile signal despite being rural is good if not blindingly fast, and there are many ways to rechange our smartphones and tablets. Plan for where we are and what we expect could happen.
Although the FTTH went in yesterday late afternoon it only took around 45 minutes to feed the new cable from a “node” across the road through to the front of the house. He used the existing duct that houses the BT cable. The new outside box sits adjacent to the BT inlet and is quite a bit bigger than the Vidaphob box on our daughter house. It also has Virgin embossed on it. Guess if we move supplier in 18 months that will be changed. The internal connection is on 18 March, to coincide with the end of my EE contract.
The current house phones are DECT and Virgin will connect them via their router and a VOIP converter. I’m only paying £5pm for Anytime “ landline” calls but I would like to ditch the VOIP “landline” by the time the 18 months contract ends. Just more complication and financial outlay.
I assume our present EE broadband was FTTC but it was only 36 mps. The new one is 260 mps FTTH.
A bit of an update now that I have managed to clarify a few things with our provider. We now have a backup for the router so no loss of internet when power goes off.
We have decided to go full fibre when our contract expires next month and port our current telephone over to the VOIP provider A&A as there is no contract. This will allow us to update people as when and if they phone that in future they need to sue the smartphone numbers. We can also use Whatsapp as per normal for overseas calls without incurring any costs.
Now to make sure that OH does not phone her sister using the normal telephone and spend the next hour catching up on all the gossip. OH will need to start using her Smartphone more.
We didn’t bother with the UPS but the old DECT phone plugs straight into the port in the Virgin hub. We get wifi calls via ID Mobile and Tesco mobile. The wholesale changeover to Tesco, IDmobile and Virgin Media went very smoothly. So EE lost one of their longest serving customers from the days of 121 in the late Nineties. So have more data, unlimited calls, landline, unlimited texts and 270mb broadband speed at substantially less outlay.A bit of an update now that I have managed to clarify a few things with our provider. We now have a backup for the router so no loss of internet when power goes off.
We have decided to go full fibre when our contract expires next month and port our current telephone over to the VOIP provider A&A as there is no contract. This will allow us to update people as when and if they phone that in future they need to sue the smartphone numbers. We can also use Whatsapp as per normal for overseas calls without incurring any costs.
Now to make sure that OH does not phone her sister using the normal telephone and spend the next hour catching up on all the gossip. OH will need to start using her Smartphone more.
May decide in Sept 2025 whether to retain the landline. Our younger offspring and theirs don’t have landlines.
Having got a bit more info it seems that VOIP may be unnecessary at present as we only have a fibre connection and not full fibre. I never realised there was a difference and had assumed it was the same thing. According to the experts apparently with fibre only if using the Internet voice calls could be poor quality however with full fibre not an issue.
Its the 50V D.C supply thats being switched off, if you have a internet router a modern phone has a BT standard phone jack plug and the router kit may have come with a short adapter cable to connect this to a small 4 pole RJ11 plug that will plug into the back of the router. there is a socket marked 'phone' .The phone will then continue to work as normal, and when the line to the house is converted to fibre, a box will be provided to convert the optical signal to an electrical one . the big downside is that in a power cut not only will your router not work , neither will your phone unless you have battery back up to the phone and router!. I have both an em light ( battery backed ) which is the small green ceiling mounted type , which emits a white light in a power cut, allowing us to see the front door in the entrance hallway - very pleased with it. Also I have an four spotlight, battery backed em light system in my garage/workshop You only need these systems when you need them and thats in an emergency.
However if your router is backed up using UPS, you can still use the mobile phone.
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