ONT missing power supply

Hello,
My son has just moved into a new house and has arranged to have his FTTP fitted, however we have just realised the ONTs power supply is missing.

Do we contact Sky or can we get a replacement online ?

The ONT looks like this:ONT

Thanks

Edited by JeffVader (Sat 01-Mar-25 15:58:21)

Eh? That looks like the ONT, not the PSU. If he has just had it fitted, the techy who fitted it should have left a PSU.

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

Hello,
My son has just moved into a new house and has arranged to have his FTTP fitted, however we have just realised the ONTs power supply is missing.

Do we contact Sky or can we get a replacement online ?

It looks like this PSU
Any 12v PSU should do.

Thanks

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Eh? That looks like the ONT, not the PSU. If he has just had it fitted, the techy who fitted it should have left a PSU.

He's just moved into the house where is it already fitted.
It looks like the previous owners have taken the cable with them !

Edited by JeffVader (Sat 01-Mar-25 15:58:58)

Hi

If your son has just moved into a property where the ONT already existed but the PSU has been removed by the previous owners I would suggest calling Sky and explaining to them in simple terms what has happened so they can hopefully arrange for Openreach to supply a replacement for you.

There are two or three different suppliers of the Openreach ONTs, the one you linked to looks like a Nokia (serial number will start ALCL) if that helps.

Edited by PCJM40 (Sat 01-Mar-25 15:59:21)

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Hi

If your son has just moved into a property where the ONT already existed but the PSU has been removed by the previous owners I would suggest calling Sky and explaining to them in simple terms what has happened so they can hopefully arrange for Openreach to supply a replacement for you.

There are two or three different suppliers of the Openreach ONTs, the one you linked to looks like a Nokia (serial number will start ALCL) if that helps.

Thanks. His serial number does start with ALCL so it looks like it is a Nokia.

I've got a spare PSU from a FTTC HG612.
This is 12v 1.0a, from what I've read online the ONT is 12v 0.5a so I believe this should work.

But will it fit OK ?
Thanks

Are the connector barrel and pins the same size?

I would get your son to contact the previous house awner and ask for them to return it - as OR or Sky could charge for replacement (probably would not, but they could). And also call Sky and explain.

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Eh? That looks like the ONT, not the PSU. If he has just had it fitted, the techy who fitted it should have left a PSU.

He's just moved into the house where is it already fitted.
It looks like the previous owners have taken the cable with them !

Ah, OK, first port of call is to ask the previous owners to return the PSU, then to ask Sky for a replacement.

not sure how he would be able to show you a picture of a PSU that is missing and he has never seen.

In reply to a post by pyarwood:

not sure how he would be able to show you a picture of a PSU that is missing and he has never seen.

Well, it clearly wasn't a PSU, yet he said it was. And that is probably not a photo of the ONT itself. It was a muddled tale and indeed OP has seen fit to clarify. Always better to resolve ambiguity.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

In reply to a post by pyarwood:

not sure how he would be able to show you a picture of a PSU that is missing and he has never seen.

Well, it clearly wasn't a PSU, yet he said it was. And that is probably not a photo of the ONT itself. It was a muddled tale and indeed OP has seen fit to clarify. Always better to resolve ambiguity.

I was puzzled by your reply to OP, then I noticed the OP had been edited.

In reply to a post by burble:

I was puzzled by your reply to OP, then I noticed the OP had been edited.

Before the edit it was still clear and obvious, just a very small tweak to the link name from PSU to ONT but the link still went to a Nokia ONT picture.

I posted the original message from my phone and inadvertently set the link to say PSU when I meant ONT !
The picture of the ONT is from BTs web site, but that is the model he has.

He has spoken to Sky who have advised a new PSU will be sent with the router. I'm not convinced Sky know what he meant.. but we'll see.

Thanks

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

I posted the original message from my phone and inadvertently set the link to say PSU when I meant ONT !
The picture of the ONT is from BTs web site, but that is the model he has.

He has spoken to Sky who have advised a new PSU will be sent with the router. I'm not convinced Sky know what he meant.. but we'll see.

Thanks

Yeah they have no clue, maybe the previous occupier didn't use the OR network? has your son checked https://bidb.uk ? there might be better / cheaper alternatives about.

The Power cables can be brought maybe places online if need be, Sky would most likely have to set it up as a "new install" which may cost, (hopefully not) might be easier to look locally though.

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

Hello,
My son has just moved into a new house and has arranged to have his FTTP fitted, however we have just realised the ONTs power supply is missing.

Do we contact Sky or can we get a replacement online ?

The ONT looks like this:ONT

Thanks

Any 12V (1A or 0.5A) plug-in power supply with a 5.5mm/2.1mm barrel connector will work. The same connector is used on Nokia (Alcatel), Adtran and even older Huawei ONTs. They all fit and work.

If you fail to get one from your ISP, you can get them online for a couple of quid.

When an order is placed to activate an existing ONT, Openreach run an automated test of the ONT. If it fails, an engineer visit is automatically arranged. If the ONT is powered off then the test may fail. Best to speak to Sky. They should be able to see if the test has failed and an appointment booked.

While you could buy a power supply, it's always best to get one from Openreach (via Sky) in case of any future issues. For example,if a fault occurs in the future, and you have a 3rd party PSU, then you could be liable for charges.

In reply to a post by rcranswick:

While you could buy a power supply, it's always best to get one from Openreach

I agree, long term it needs to be an Openreach branded PSU identical to the original so not to cause any issues with support going forward.

If missing PSUs are a common thing Sky and Openreach may have come up with a process of Sky sending them out when it happens.

In reply to a post by rcranswick:

While you could buy a power supply, it's always best to get one from Openreach (via Sky) in case of any future issues. For example,if a fault occurs in the future, and you have a 3rd party PSU, then you could be liable for charges.

I'm not sure what issue could be caused by a faulty psu, apart from the ONT not working, but I doubt that any OR technician would investigate sufficiently closely to determine that a psu wasn't company issue.(My ONT is powered by a battery backup (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNT6LLHP) and I'm not losing any sleep over the unlikely possibility of it causing any issues with the ONT or the broadband connection.)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Any 12V (1A or 0.5A) plug-in power supply with a 5.5mm/2.1mm barrel connector will work. The same connector is used on Nokia (Alcatel), Adtran and even older Huawei ONTs. They all fit and work.

Just beware of polarity. ONT connectors should be fine, but some PSUs on the general market could have the wrong polarity - I don't think there is a standard, but I suspect all but a few will be the right way. Just tested mine, it is negative sleeve positive inner.

The vast bulk of them are positive centre and negative sleeve/outer. It’s rare for them to be the other way around. The 5.5mm/2.1mm barrel size is also an extremely common and easy to find size.

Shouldn’t be too hard to find one online if the ISP won’t send one out without a fuss, though they should.

None of them (power supplies) are Openreach branded. It’s whatever Chinese brand of plugpack power supply the ONT manufacturer bundles in with the unit.

The risk (of anything) untoward is extremely low as long as you get a simple 12V (1A or 0.5A) plug in power supply with a 5.5/2.1mm barrel connector (+ centre polarity).

There’s literally dozens available online with simple google search or better still if I was buying one, I’d just get a little BBU like the poster above mentioned. That will be a little bit more money, but at least the ONT gets stood up for a couple of hours in the case of a power outage.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

None of them (power supplies) are Openreach branded. It’s whatever Chinese brand of plugpack power supply the ONT manufacturer bundles in with the unit.

So a big Openreach down one side of the PSU isn't branding? there is a difference between bundling and branded and the Nokia ones are Openreach branded.

Openreach Branded PSU

Mine isn't. Just a plain white thing. Stuck in the bottom drawer. I'd happily post it to the OP if they're struggling to get hold of one.

As said they're not particularly special...

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

Hello,
My son has just moved into a new house and has arranged to have his FTTP fitted, however we have just realised the ONTs power supply is missing.

Do we contact Sky or can we get a replacement online ?

The ONT looks like this:ONT

Thanks

Hmm just thought of it, but the other alternative, if you get no joy from the ISP - is to buy a complete ONT from eBay. This will have a power supply of the correct colour / size/ specification etc.

In reality you could take the PS and then re-list the actual ONT back on eBay (obv noting its now sans power supply) and probably get similar money (or more!) for it 🤣

Here's one for under £6 + delivery under £3

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/306072968184?

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by rcranswick:

While you could buy a power supply, it's always best to get one from Openreach

I agree, long term it needs to be an Openreach branded PSU identical to the original so not to cause any issues with support going forward.

If missing PSUs are a common thing Sky and Openreach may have come up with a process of Sky sending them out when it happens.

My ONT power suppy failed. There is, according to the ISP when this happened (A&A), no way to just order a new power supply with Openreach, the option doesn't exist. The procedure is to report a fault at the consumer premises of no connectivity (which of course will be the case) to get an engineer out. When the engineer arrived for me, I just had to explain it was a blown power supply, and they seem to carry spares so it was simple swap.

Things were a bit complicated in my case as I had found an alternative supply from a USB hard drive, and not wanting to be without internet used it. This meant Openreach got in touch to say no fault found, so the ISP just said there was a fault and to attend.

So the OP will need to wait until they "go live", then report a fault that it isn't working, get an engineer out, who will know from looking its a missing power supply and sort it.

Edited by E300 (Sun 02-Mar-25 18:26:46)

The Alternative is you email Openreach support adivsing of a pending service that they won't be able to provision due to lack of PSU and they normally attened replace and if they see an order in the system at their discretion they may provision (depends who you get) the service early.

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

The Alternative is you email Openreach support adivsing of a pending service that they won't be able to provision due to lack of PSU and they normally attened replace and if they see an order in the system at their discretion they may provision (depends who you get) the service early.

Openreach don't do end-user service support at all - this has to go through your ISP.

What they will support is shown here - including things like reporting unsafe or damaged equipment.

If you cannot order FTTP because the OR database says it's not available, but you think this is a database error, there is a fairly hard-to-find contact form which includes the useful option "I cannot get fibre but my neighbours can"

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Openreach don't do end-user service support at all - this has to go through your ISP.

I think Ryan keeps forgetting the majority of us are ISP end-users whereas I believe he has access to Openreach Support through his job as I recall him explaining in a previous post.

Edited by PCJM40 (Mon 03-Mar-25 09:13:21)

Today my son got a message confirming his FTTC is going live on the 10th, part of the message asked him to confirm the ONT and all required bits were available.

He responded they weren't and this afternoon he got a message from Openreach advising they are visiting Wednesday PM to resolve the issue prior to going live.

Hopefully they will sort it.

👍

If you reach out directly as an end user to elevated support (you have to research who) they will generally help, at least when I logged my own fault skipping the ISP as an end user from my personal email they did. That being said, I provided all the information, of tests complete etc, what the suspected issue was etc so it has to be comprehensive.

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

Hopefully they will sort it.

should be a quick 30 minute install ......

hello
plug in psu for ont.
test
check serial is in the pon database
wait
test
bye

Fantastic, thats really good news.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

None of them (power supplies) are Openreach branded. It’s whatever Chinese brand of plugpack power supply the ONT manufacturer bundles in with the unit.

My borked nokia 1gbit ont had a branded OR psu and so does the 2.5gbit nokia replacement ....... 2024 april install

I must've lucked out...or they fell off the back of an Openreach truck 😅

Same, had a Nokia 1Gb and 2.5Gb ONT and both have had branded PSUs. Part of the efforts to stop people moving house with them I guess.

Whilst on the subject of ONT power supplies, would you happen to know the acceptable tolerance of the 12 volt input? In particular, would it stretch to 13.8 volt on the high side?

(I have an ADS-B receiver which came with a 12 volt psu for its 12 volt marked power input. However, in its basic form it would work from a USB connection, my model also had a network option and apparently needed 12 volt. Opened it up and traced out the power components and found that the 5.0 volt rail was from a 5.0 volt regulator with a Low Drop Out spec. Using a variable output psu found that 6.0 volts was adequate for the network connection to work and a much cooler running receiver as a bonus.)

Cheers!

Sorry Clive I don't know. I don't believe it's published either (but stand to be corrected). However I suspect it's around +/- 5-10%, which is quite typical for the output tolerance of such power supplies.

Actually Clive, just thought to take a look at the Openreach SIN 506 to see if it said anything concrete re ONT power supplies and yes here you go…

See page 28 - officially the power supply output range is 11 - 14 V DC

Though in the table directly below, it’s only the old Huawei ONT that specify the same input voltage range. The others, Adtrsn and Nokia just say input “12 V”

😉

In reply to a post by jpm:

Same, had a Nokia 1Gb and 2.5Gb ONT and both have had branded PSUs. Part of the efforts to stop people moving house with them I guess.

Or to stop them being stolen in the warehouse.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Are the connector barrel and pins the same size?

I would get your son to contact the previous house awner and ask for them to return it - as OR or Sky could charge for replacement (probably would not, but they could). And also call Sky and explain.

Check polarity too.

You need:
- same polarity (middle and outer pin being positive and negative)
- size which fits securely
- correct voltage (not higher or lower)
- amperage at least the same (higher is ok).

I don't have one to hand to check the adaptor but I'm sure you can get one - may be much easier than trying to source one via ISP.
If it's 5.5mm/2.1mm as per Pheasant's response which I'm fairly sure is correct (since we did test this using what looks like the same ONT) you need a DC 5521connector.
Have a look here:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/guides/how-to-stay-on...

The amperage is what may cause you problems if you don't get it right. I'd buy an adaptor rather than try to use USB if it's just powering it.

seb

Thanks Pheasant that's most helpful.

Our ONT and Technicolor router are both in our garage and rather than a UPS a decent sized lead acid battery on a constant voltage charger seems a better option. Currently I am not using the Cisco ATA191 which requires 5 volts dc, but that could be supplied by a 12 volt to 5 volt Switch Mode psu if needed.

Chers!

Nice. Stick a solar panel on the garage roof and a small MPPT charge controller for free recharging courtesy of Mother Nature ☀️

On Wednesday Openreach came out and replaced his ONT's PSU.
Sky was due to go live on Monday, but is live now so he's happy.

Thanks for all the comments

In reply to a post by JeffVader:

On Wednesday Openreach came out and replaced his ONT's PSU.

Thats great news.

The Huawei ONTs are fine running off a float-charged 12V SLA battery - IIRC they were originally planning on using SLA batteries for the BBU but changed to NiMH cells as they would be more readily available for end users to replace.

I've opted for caution with the newer ONTs, and use buck/boost converters primarily designed for providing a stable 12V supply from an 8 to 36V supply in 12V or 24V automotive environments.

SLA batteries?

Good old Openreach. Can always be relied on for implementing the technology from yesteryear 😂

Yay, I hope everything goes ok on monday and he enjoys his faster internet connection

Already live according to previous post from @JeffVader on Friday at 21:58:58

Entire thread TL/DR Conclusion rather boring, Openreach replaced the ONT PSU. Job done

Edited by Realalemadrid (Sat 08-Mar-25 13:04:31)

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

Already live according to previous post from @JeffVader on Friday at 21:58:58

i sorta misread the last bit of Jeff's post 😂🙈

Yes its a boring thread but one with the correct solution. Thats important

Thanks for that info re float charged SLA batterie for Huawei ONTs.

My next task is whether my Technicolor DGA0122 would also be happy on the same circuit.
I also have a DrayTek Vigor 2762 router as a back-up which has a non-standard dc supply plug size which makes a simple test less simple.

Cheers!

The Post Office had an interesting method of controlling the load voltage of exchange lead acid batteries by using Counter EMF Cells which can be shorted out if needed...

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/POEEJ/40s/Post-...

I never had the luxury of such systems on the MN ships I served on, sometimes two banks of wet lead acid, other times a single bank of either lead acid or alkaline cells with a supposedly float charging system. This was all 24 volt.

Cheers!

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

My next task is whether my Technicolor DGA0122 would also be happy on the same circuit.

As alluded in an earlier post here, the actual input tolerance is pretty wide for a lot of these device with the typical 12VDC inputs, so I reckon you’ll be absolutely fine.

However if you’re really concerned I’d wire in a Victron Orion-Tr 12/12-9 DC-DC converter. Not too expensive and will do the job. I use Victron stuff for my off-grid solar - it’s really good gear and not overly expensive.

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

Already live according to previous post from @JeffVader on Friday at 21:58:58

Entire thread TL/DR Conclusion rather boring, Openreach replaced the ONT PSU. Job done

😁😂

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

Entire thread TL/DR Conclusion rather boring, Openreach replaced the ONT PSU. Job done

May be a question for the AI chat bot in a future broadband forum, making us all redundant 😂

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

Entire thread TL/DR Conclusion rather boring, Openreach replaced the ONT PSU. Job done

May be a question for the AI chat bot in a future broadband forum, making us all redundant 😂

Not if it's like some of the absolute junk that Google AI spouts in its answers?! 😎🤣

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Not if it's like some of the absolute junk that Google AI spouts in its answers?! 😎🤣

It must already be active on here then 🤣

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Not if it's like some of the absolute junk that Google AI spouts in its answers?! 😎🤣

I thought someone had switched on a joke generator, turns out it's AI, or as I like to term it after several years of the BPS software 'Artificial Ignorance'.

I went to Ben Elton's show last year, which was called "Authentic Stupidity"

I think it's finished now, unless you go to Australia or New Zealand.