The delights of a few seconds power cut, just having a rant.

Or how the phone system has been made worse.
In the middle of a long and 'painful' phone call with my water company there was a slight hiccup in the power supply, just a second or so, as you might expect this lead to the call being dropped, what a PITA, we had just got to the point of reaching a resolution, now I'm in the middle of going through it all again, on hold for the fourth time ATM, of cause the call centre cannot connect me to the same operator, so having to go through all the details again, and get the autherisations from managements all over again, almost makes me miss the old crackly system.

The same happened to me in March this year. A power hiccup in the morning when I was on the phone (VoIP not BT's Digital Voice, not that it makes any difference), then again that afternoon. I found out later that there had been a high voltage fault and I guess that these hiccups were due to switching to get around it.

I had been considering a power back up system, had thought of a diy approach, but decided to purchase a "SKE Mini UPS UK DC20000mAh Battery Backup & Surge Protector UK Uninterruptible Power Supply for Router Modem USB Type-C Mini UPS 5V/9V/12V" from Amazon.

It happily powers my Openreach ONT and Technicolor Router and also my Cisco ATA191 (5-volt) should I not be using the Technicolor's built in VoIP.

Since installing it, I have had at least one hiccup whilst using the telephone, I had absolutely no knowledge of the hiccup other than the pc's screen going blank. In other words it did exactly as it was supposed to do.

Any questions please ask.

Cheers!

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

but decided to purchase a "SKE Mini UPS UK DC20000mAh Battery Backup & Surge Protector UK Uninterruptible Power Supply for Router Modem USB Type-C Mini UPS 5V/9V/12V" from Amazon.

Excellent looking device. Are there wall mounting holes on the back of this unit? I had been looking at the Eaton, but you can't wall mount it. Also do the supplied connectors fit the Openreach ONT, or did you have to source elsewhere?
Cheers,

I've been 'humming and haring' over having a UPS for some time, that one call has highlighted how we would benefit from having one, having to call a RSA based call centre twice in a day tests your patience.

In reply to a post by burble:

there was a slight hiccup in the power supply

What exactly happened? are you saying you had a second or so power outage to your whole property that lead to the issue or was it isolated to the power supply to the comms equipment?

Are there wall mounting holes on the back of this unit?


According to the Amazon reviews it has holes for wall mounting.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by burble:

there was a slight hiccup in the power supply

What exactly happened? are you saying you had a second or so power outage to your whole property that lead to the issue or was it isolated to the power supply to the comms equipment?

A powercut which made the room lights flick off and on was enough to make the ont and router reboot

I have had an APC UPS for years in my "comms room" as we used to get brown outs which rebooted things. Recently I've had an Openreach connection but in a different location, hence the need for a small UPS for the ONT only. The brown outs have gone, a new transformer was installed for the area by the electricity people a few years back, but I've kept the UPS irrespective.

Yes, it does have rear wall mounting holes.

It comes with two "Y" cables, One has all three connectors 5.5 x 2.5mm and the other 5.5 x 2.5mm to a 5.5 x 2.1mm and a 3.5 x 1.3mm

My Technicolor Router (12v) needed a 5.5 x 2.5mm and the OR ONT 5.5 x 2.1mm, so purchased a SHANFEILU DC Power Extension Cable 5.5mm x 2.1mm Male to 5.5mm x 2.5mm Female 12V 22AWG DC 5521 Male to 5525 Female Adapter from Amazon. A bit pricey, but cheaper is an adapter from eBay:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234413937868?_skw=5.5mm+x...

You have to be careful since some suppliers use female and male in the opposite sense.

Cheers!

Not sure why a phone issue made you go back to the start
did the advisor not implement ot put notes on your account as to your discussion
can they not reply the recording to hear what was discussed

I would tell them to investigate what was agreed and contact you again when they are up to date.

In reply to a post by pyarwood:

Not sure why a phone issue made you go back to the start
did the advisor not implement ot put notes on your account as to your discussion
can they not reply the recording to hear what was discussed

I would tell them to investigate what was agreed and contact you again when they are up to date.

I'm afraid that's not how 'cheap' RSA call centres work, you say to them "I've been having a conversation with your colleuge about my problem", they seem unable to either contact that person, or read notes, so you end up going through all the steps again, as for them investigating and getting back to you, I learned a long while ago, if you aren't on the phone to them the job is pushed aside.

Had a call from AW's UK based team this morning booking in the job, happened to mention my woes over the call centre and was told " I'll have a look in to why they couldn't pick up from where it was left off", this afternoon was called back and a interesting point came up.
The first operator tried twice to ring me back but couldn't get through, so fair play to him, but this would have been while my ONT and router where rebooting and trying to establish a connection, something which seemed to take several minutes, if I had been on my old copper line number and using a cordless, the call would still have been lost, but it would have reconnected in seconds and I would have got that call back and not had to spend another hour or so on the phone.

I find its a lot quicker to get up and running again after a power outage with FTTP than it was when I was on FTTC\ADSL

People adverse to change will find all the reasons to say they prefer the legacy stuff but we have to move with the times and embrace it.

Edited by PCJM40 (Thu 17-Jul-25 17:02:21)

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

People adverse to change will find all the reasons to say they prefer the legacy stuff but we have to move with the times and embrace it.

LoL, I may not have the technical expertise of many on this site, but when it comes to consumer experience that's a different thing.
My first use of VoIP dates back 20 years, yes back when this site was ADSLGuide and had product reviews I saw the Zoom 5v and thought "that's a good idea to ring the rellies around the world at a reasonable price", so I became a early adopter, used it for about 5 years until we started using Skype.

With the greatest respect to you burble, I was just trying to make the point that we are where we are and saying if I was on legacy copper I would have been back up quicker achieves nothing as you're not on copper and that ship has sailed so we just need to do the best with what we have now to mitigate the flaws in the current system.

Edited by PCJM40 (Fri 18-Jul-25 10:00:59)

Funny enough I am on ye olde copper line as well, but That's a whole other world of hurt which I may well post about another time.
The thing is, who will be using consumer VoIP and is it fit for purpose for those people. I would guess most 'younger' people will never have a 'landline' number, that leaves older people who have a cherished number, or those who don't have a mobile, so a great many will be technophobes who will not benefit from the advantage of VoIP, but be affected by the downsides, so for many consumers it is a downgrade in service.

This might be a daft question, but in a typical FTTP situation, how far from the user is the first active part of the network? I know that much of the local network is passive, but i can't quite understand where the first active bit is likely to be.

I'm considering a UPS, but if the power goes down across the whole town, will this also leave the fibre unusable as the first active part of the network also be located there or is it likely to be much further away?

In reply to a post by Spudgun:

This might be a daft question, but in a typical FTTP situation, how far from the user is the first active part of the network? I know that much of the local network is passive, but i can't quite understand where the first active bit is likely to be.

I'm considering a UPS, but if the power goes down across the whole town, will this also leave the fibre unusable as the first active part of the network also be located there or is it likely to be much further away?

The first active part is in the handover exchange (the OLT), this could be the local exchange (as is in my case) or could be somewhere else. They are reducing from 5,000+ exchanges down to around 1,000ish so that shows you the extent of the reduction.

I meant no disrespect Burble I know you have a very good point but things are not going to change for the better, thats why I just keep my head down these days and accept it as the fight has already been lost.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

The first active part is in the handover exchange (the OLT), this could be the local exchange (as is in my case) or could be somewhere else. They are reducing from 5,000+ exchanges down to around 1,000ish so that shows you the extent of the reduction.

Thanks for that. The fewer OLT's there are, the less the chance of a power cut which affects your premises also affecting the OLT location.

What would be interesting to know is whether the OLT's have any degree of battery or generator backup.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Thanks for that. The fewer OLT's there are, the less the chance of a power cut which affects your premises also affecting the OLT location.

What would be interesting to know is whether the OLT's have any degree of battery or generator backup.

All BT exchanges typically have massive backup generators (there may be some exceptions like very small exchanges out in the sticks). I suspect handover exchanges would be well catered for.

Edited by PCJM40 (Fri 18-Jul-25 17:40:43)

In reply to a post by Spudgun:

This might be a daft question, but in a typical FTTP situation, how far from the user is the first active part of the network? I know that much of the local network is passive, but i can't quite understand where the first active bit is likely to be.

This depends on the network operator. The replies you have had so far are correct for Openreach. Other operators (e.g. CityFibre, nexfibre, Virgin Media, or any alt net) may have active components in the street.

Hi,

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Spudgun:

This might be a daft question, but in a typical FTTP situation, how far from the user is the first active part of the network? I know that much of the local network is passive, but i can't quite understand where the first active bit is likely to be.

This depends on the network operator. The replies you have had so far are correct for Openreach. Other operators (e.g. CityFibre, nexfibre, Virgin Media, or any alt net) may have active components in the street.

Cityfibre do not use street based active equipment so far as I am aware.

Openreach will use street based active equipment for FTTP in some rare cases (subtended head ends) but in general the first active equipment is in the exchange. [ Personally I think they have made a mistake using subtended head ends - there are other solutions which are probably lower cost / greater resilience in the longer term. ]

If I was going to go to the trouble of backing up the power to my ONT / router then I wouldn't buy from someone who was going to use active equipment in the street to deliver my service.

In reply to a post by Dassa:

If I was going to go to the trouble of backing up the power to my ONT / router then I wouldn't buy from someone who was going to use active equipment in the street to deliver my service.

In many cases you don't have a choice, e.g. in my road there is OR for VDSL around 40 Mbps or Virgin Media for higher speeds. VM have active cabinets, it is unclear if they have BBU.

If cityfibre have no active that is good, other alt nets certainly do have active street cabinets, you can hear the fans!

In reply to a post by Dassa:

Openreach will use street based active equipment for FTTP in some rare cases (subtended head ends) but in general the first active equipment is in the exchange. [ Personally I think they have made a mistake using subtended head ends - there are other solutions which are probably lower cost / greater resilience in the longer term. ]

Can you please give me examples of the other solutions you believe would be better than a SHE ?

Hi,

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Dassa:

If I was going to go to the trouble of backing up the power to my ONT / router then I wouldn't buy from someone who was going to use active equipment in the street to deliver my service.

In many cases you don't have a choice, e.g. in my road there is OR for VDSL around 40 Mbps or Virgin Media for higher speeds. VM have active cabinets, it is unclear if they have BBU.

If cityfibre have no active that is good, other alt nets certainly do have active street cabinets, you can hear the fans!

From an OR perspective, those who really need things to work in the case of power failure really don't want to move from ADSL until FTTP is available. Of course, those applications prioritise availability over bandwidth which may not be a choice that the mass market wants to make.

Hi,

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Dassa:

Openreach will use street based active equipment for FTTP in some rare cases (subtended head ends) but in general the first active equipment is in the exchange. [ Personally I think they have made a mistake using subtended head ends - there are other solutions which are probably lower cost / greater resilience in the longer term. ]

Can you please give me examples of the other solutions you believe would be better than a SHE ?

I would be considering using very low splits to achieve the 60km maximum PON range and where that is not possible individual point to point ethernet links hung off a multi-port ONT in the exchange.

Yes, it leads to more fibre in the ground and a non-standard NTE at the premises for the really long reaches but you don't have to worry about active equipment in the field. It will also avoid the subtended OLT being an obstacle to future upgrades.

Remember that the up-front cost of any solution must be balanced across the cost of maintaining the security of, and the power supply to, to the SHE for its expected life. Also note that in rural areas, (where SHE's will be located) power interruptions tend to be longer so you are looking at a minimum of 24 hours power, perhaps 10 days depending on how tough you think Ofcom will get about resilience in the future.

Additional fibre in the ground is cheap when you are installing it - best to take advantage of that low cost and throw in enough to avoid SHEs.

That's correct. TalkTalk are advertising to businesses/public sector, who wish to keep copper landlines running beyond 2027. We have some rural sites that have no FTTP and these will be remaining on ADSL, for comms. that have to keep running, until FTTP with maintained power at the head-end (we have maintained power at the sites, of course) becomes available. Since the FTTP offerings from the rural fibre companies usually do not have maintained power, they are not a solution. OR usually has maintained power, but we may have a while to wait at some sites. Wireless, of course, usually does not have maintained power, just a few hours of battery at the cell-site, if you're lucky.

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

I have had an APC UPS for years in my "comms room" as we used to get brown outs which rebooted things. Recently I've had an Openreach connection but in a different location, hence the need for a small UPS for the ONT only. The brown outs have gone, a new transformer was installed for the area by the electricity people a few years back, but I've kept the UPS irrespective.

It’s a good idea to replace the sealed lead-acid batteries in those traditional 240v UPS units every few years. They typically degrade and lose most of their useful capacity by about the 4th year. Unless tested regularly, you won’t know the batteries have degraded until the next power outage…

Yes, you are absolutely correct. I have changed the battery before on the first one I had, but am now onto my second one as I needed more sockets than the first one had. My NAS has a USB connection to the UPS and it gives a fairly accurate "battery time to drain"

When I purchased my SKE Mini UPS UK 20000mAh (March 2025, it was £94.99p from Amazon.

Yesterday when looking for another purchase, found that currently they are £66.49p which is an absolute bargain.

I am not associated with either SKE or Amazon, but thought it correct to recommend a really useful item.

Cheers!.