[BC] Verizon FiOS

[Dean Tiernan]

There is no reason to wait for this answer, when I started with FIOS support, in
January or February of 2007, a huge snowstorm knocked out power to
fairly large areas of Maryland and other eastern seaboard areas.

The battery backup is good for a few days of emergency use. With these
areas waiting (in some cases) for more than a week for restoration of power,
I was on calls with customers, more than once, who were watching battery power
dwindle on their cell phones as they called in to find out when techs would
be out to restore their voice service.If the battery backup operates correctly, the
system is automatically restored when AC service is restored.
 
A few inventive customers had extra batteries, though keeping them charged
was an issue. Others had UPS systems attached to the battery backup, these
seemed to do a pretty good job of extending the life of their systems. One word
of warning, when AC goes out and battery backup is in operation, the system
cuts back to voice only, (no IPS, no TV) to conserve power. An option that won't
kick in with the UPS.

Dean Tiernan

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From: rj carpenter <rcarpen at comcast.net>

My friend, who has Verizon FiOS, asked his Verizon-engineer neighbor
about replacement batteries for residential FiOS users.

"I asked [him] about the backup battery replacement situation and he
allowed that No Replacements is now Verizon policy and that it also
applies to FiOS.  So, the message is - keep a copper line as a backup."

Could one expect that, maybe a decade from now, whole neighborhoods will
be without [FiOS] phones when the power goes out?

Get your station's investigative reports to work to verify this.