In reply to a post by BatBoy:

2000 maAh apparently bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/36953

You may be able to get a mains adapter

Ok, so if it lasts upto an hour when on the BBU, that means the ONT could take anything around 2Amps give or take, which makes sense, my Fritz!Box 3390 runs off a 2Amp power brick.

So I would require a 20,000mAh Battery or above to last 10 hours, so that's about £38 to £80 for a 20,000mAh (20Ah SLA), the charger and switching circuit is nothing, I already have a home made 6V SLA Charger that can easily be modified to 12V if required.

Or if I kept with the 4 AA NiMH batteries it would cost from £8 (pack of 4 @ 2.3Ah) to £16 (pack of 4 @ 2.85Ah) so not that bad.

I could also do a external battery pack containing 4 D Size batteries giving me from 2.2Ah for £26 to 10Ah at £59.

Either way should work, but the end of the day its BTOR's Equipment so I guess I would probably stick with the high capacity AA Batteries.

As for the "You may be able to get a mains adapter" comment, that would be great but if there was a power cut it would be useless LOL.

Paul

We do not use telephone extensions at home having a DECT base station and a couple of wireless handsets. So when I had my ONTE installed they put it in the spare bedroom where the router, switch and NAS are. I then plugged the DECT base station into Tel1. I have no link between the ONTE and the master socket which would have required the extension wire that provided the ADSL to stay in place down the stairs. I opted to remove that and use only the FVA. It all works well. Of course if you rely on hard wired extensions for SKY or alarm etc then what I have done is not an option.

In reply to a post by Tradewind25:

In reply to a post by EddyTheDog:

When I had my FTTP installed, right at the end of the installation the Openreach engineer asked me if I wanted to keep using copper for the phone line, or if I wanted to move it to FVA. I chose FVA out of convenience, but the choice should be given to you on the day of installation.

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Do you mind my asking when your installation took place? ...and was Fibre Home Phone mentioned when you placed your order?

When I had my FTTP installed (August this year) I was aware that my ISP (not BT) did not do FVA, but as my phone was with BT I thought I'd ask the engineer about FVA.

According to him, even though my ONT had the Tel1 and Tel2 ports it was not enabled for FVA, furthermore neither was my exchange!

Edited by Rastus (Tue 08-Dec-15 18:11:59)

FVA will only work then the voice and broadband billing is with the same firm.

Many thanks guys for sharing your various experiences.

At the end of the day is there actually any benefit in using FVA? You still pay the same line rental so there's no financial incentive, and I suggle to think of any technical advantage.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

FVA will only work then the voice and broadband billing is with the same firm.

Thanks, that's good to know, so when we do finally get FTTP (sigh) we will stay with BT for both broadband and the phone.

And once I know its really happening I will be moving our internal wiring so that our NTE5A Master Socket and the MKIII xDSL face plate etc is located where we want the ONT, BBU and have the HH5 (whatever we use) located in the middle of our house and just use CAT5 cable between the two.

Paul

In reply to a post by Tradewind25:

At the end of the day is there actually any benefit in using FVA? You still pay the same line rental so there's no financial incentive, and I suggle to think of any technical advantage.

Well in our case it would, we have intermittent static screeching noises on our line that appears out of no ware, so yes in our case it would matter

Paul

I wonder if anyone with experience of FTTP/FTTH and Fibre Home Phone could answer my question about the potential use of existing telephone extension sockets once your line has been switched to the fibre?

Yes, there should be a lead run from the TEL1 port on the ONTE to the existing NTE. The previously described faceplate allows the feed to be switched between FTTP and PSTN if needed. Once complete any previously working extensions will work again.

When I had my FTTP installed, right at the end of the installation the Openreach engineer asked me if I wanted to keep using copper for the phone line, or if I wanted to move it to FVA. I chose FVA out of convenience, but the choice should be given to you on the day of installation.

Summat amiss there, the CP will either have or have not ordered the FVA service prior to the installation.

It's not really a case of 'opt in, or opt out on the day' ?