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106 Messages
Backup Batteries For Residential Gateways
My understanding is that the FCC mandates that all VOIP residential phone service gateways have battery backups of some-sort so that 911 service can be maintained during power outages. However I have observed that recently AT&T has stopped provding batteries for their RGs (in this case the Pace 5268AC) due to some obscure reason that the installation tech could not (or would not) clearly articulate. He did say that he thought they were available free-of-charge from AT&T if you went to some (secret?) place on their vast website and requested one for your unit. I've combed the AT&T website looking for this but no luck, so I'm hoping someone could either provide a link to this or explain what the deal is. If the FCC mandates it then one would think that AT&T would be obligated to provide a backup battery for their units free-of-charge and not make the URL where you can request & order one so hard to find...
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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27.7K Messages
8 years ago
FCC Battery Back Up Order
"The FCC’s Battery Back-up Order comes into effect on Feb. 16, 2016, for VoIP providers with more than 100,000 customers, and smaller VoIP operations must follow the new rules starting August 11, 2016. The new rules require that service providers offer customers the option to purchase battery backup power and to make detailed disclosures related to the power issues associated with the equipment, especially in emergency situations."
AFAIK, ATT is not offering any kind of BBU, free or purchased but it would appear that the option to buy will start in August.
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Travis_Lloyd
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106 Messages
8 years ago
Okay, since AT&T notably has millions of customers and it's obviously well-past February 2016, would not they be bound at this moment in time to offer backup batteries to their customers? And hopefully at subsidized prices considering the gravity of the situation, i.e. ensuring that emergency 911 service will always be available to their faithful VOIP subscribers. I don't see how they would (or should) be allowed to wait until August of this year since they are most certainly not in the category of "smaller VOIP operators" to be sure. And I'm writing this as a non-mobile-phone-owning VOIP customer whose power has been going off & on in the midst of a current electrical storm, which is why it's taken me awhile to reply to the previous post. This is serious stuff, not to be taken lightly. As an aside, AT&T used to provide Battery Backup Units from their earliest installations of VOIP and have only fairly recently discontinued the practice without explanation (or at least one that I can discover). That's a big step backward, in my opinion...
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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27.7K Messages
8 years ago
Here's the whole 62 pages of government mumbo jumbo:
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-98A1.pdf
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sgwhit78
Contributor
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1 Message
8 years ago
during recent baton rouge floods, the att system was unavailable even before we lost power. when we did lose power, we had no service from cell phone or landline. i have medical alert system. it was also useless. perhaps a battery back up would have been of help in this situation. i have never heard it mentioned as an option.
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Anonymous
New Member
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25.7K Messages
8 years ago
When I had my gateway changed out for a 5268 the tech took my old BBU and installed a new one from his truck. Then he gave me a spare becuase he said they had a bad batch and he didn't know if the one he installed might be one of them.
Well thank you very much!!
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