Sadly, Uverse Battery Back-up Limitations Led to Cancelling Order

[Chasmax]

Importantly, this post is intended to identify what I see as a problem for me personally.  I am interested in learning viable, long-term options or alternatives.  This post is also intended to inform AT&T engineers, project managers and Executive Leadership of what I feel is a safety lapse.  My backgound as a former US Air Force Security Police Captain, then currently serving as a contractor with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), I am "hard wired" to think in "worse case scenarios".  I always look of viable, constructive and alternate redundancies that mitigate an emergency situation.

I cancelled my first-time Uverse installation because of the RG back-up battery limitations.  I have been informed by three (3) different AT&T technical staff that the battery back-up lasts for only four (4) hours after a power outage.  Regretfully, AT&T does not offer a battery with a longer back-up life after an outage.  I live in Decatur, Ga., and have been here since 1991.  During that time I have experienced at least 5 different instances of power outages - Hurricane Opel and various ice storms to just name a couple.  Each of the previously mentioned events lasted longer than 4 hours...sometimes they lasted 4 days, or 96 hours.  During each of these dreadful occurances I have been able to use my landline.  A good comfort knowing one has access to help (911 and Reverse 911) or company.  My concerns:

1.  How does one call for help and/or receive vital information via Uverse-phone(VOIP) after hour 5, hour 6, or even hour 24?

2.  One cannot depend on a cellular telephone, or have the ability to recharge a cellular phone, during a power outage as a back-up to the back-up.

3.  Alternatively keeping my landline in addition to potentially acquiring Uverse TV and Internet negates any monetary savings via bundling.

4.  **Given the litigious society that we Americans enjoy/endure, AT&T may be open to legal actions by unscrupulous "Americans" and "ambulance-chasing attorneys".**

Thus, I have to sadly accept the mediocre service of Comcast Cable by cancelling Uverse before I even get it.  (My reasons for keeping Comcast Cable versus satellite, etc. options are irrelevant to this discussion.)  I do not intend to seek, nor do I desire the limelight.  I am simply a realist who sees the world and human behavior as it REALLY is.  Again, I am interested in learning more and welcome constructive feedback.

Best regards....

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

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Chasmax wrote:

3.  Alternatively keeping my landline in addition to potentially acquiring Uverse TV and Internet negates any monetary savings via bundling.

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Most landlines are around $40-$45 per month if you have a few features on it, plus your long distance.  The U-Voice unlimited package is $30, so yes, there's a $10-$15 savings there, plus more if you use a lot of long distance.

But if your long distance usage is high, you might actually be able to still save money over what you're using now, and get both VOIP and a land line.  A plain Jane land line (no features, no long distance, no nothing) can be had for around $25/month, and that's with the taxes included.  Add the U-Voice package at $30, and you're at $55 for both unlimited long distance and features via VOIP and safety via the land line.  If your long distance pushes your current land line bill over $55, this might make sense.

[BeeBeeSA ACE - Wizard]

Just my $.02...I currently have U400 w/HD, Max 10, and a land line from AT&T.  I didn't want VoIP for the reasons you listed, but also because I have an alarm and just old school by wanting my land line. 

When I called and asked for Uverse I was offered everything to include VoIP but explained to the CSR that I was not interested w/VoIP what could they do using/including me keeping the land line.  I was offered U400 w/HD, internet, and a plan for my land line (since I was activating Uverse) which is/was called "All Distance".  This plan for the land line was $40.00 plus taxes of course.  It included all long distance at no additional charge (as long as it wasn't used for business), call fwd, call fwd follow me, caller id, caller id call waiting, call block, conference calling, and a couple of more I can't remember. 

All of this was $149.00 a month (plus taxes) which was better than I was paying for with Dish and regular land line.  I went for it and haven't looked back.  Now after some promo's ran out on the Uverse side that bill went up but the land line is still $40.00.

Hope this helps some!!

[Escapee]

You need to start planning for the future because the phone companies are moving towards VOIP for their network. It may be years but at some point switched landlines will be a thing of the past. If they convert to FTTH the copper plant may be abandoned and your choice may be take the new service or do with out. Like I said it may be years.

If you are concerned with security then you need to look into providing your own backup source. Either battery or a generator. You may be right about lawyers but they may be covered with the 4 hours.

[Jefflongtin]

Oh man, I am so sad.  You don't want Uverse because the battery backup is in sufficient?  Man I hope the company doesn't crumble now.  You know, if this message is, and I quote "intended to inform AT&T engineers, project managers and Executive Leadership"  why didn't you just write them a letter.  To me, if this was a problem for you "personally" why are you bothering to post here?  An overwhelming majority of the folks on this board love this service, with or without a battery backup.  Sympathy will be hard to find here.  As I finish this I would like to leave you with some alternatives you could have tried before subconsciously trying to get some of us to argue with you or leave the service in protest over short battery backups.

1.  Just purchase the services you have no conflicts with, i.e... Uverse TV and Uverse enabled internet.  (keep your landline)

2.  Purchase a UPS with larger capacity.  (FYI, this also may add protection from surges and the sort)

3.  Add a backup generator to your home and have that circuit one of the critical emergency circuits.

4.  Get out of hurricane alley.

I would also like to say thank you for your service to our country, and I mean that in all sincerity.  I am puzzled, however, that a man with your credentials wouldn't have plans in place already, even if your battery backup was sufficient.

Well I hope everything goes well for you back on the other side.  Good luck.

J.

[Chasmax]

Escapee,

Thank you for your post and straight-foward guidance.  I will continue to research options that best preposition me for the 21st Century.

Best,

Chasmax

[Chasmax]

Jefflontin,

I will glean any constructive input you might have provided in your post.

Best,

Chasmax

[Chasmax]

BeeBee,

Thank you for your informative post, which is worth more than $.02 to me.  I will check into what options are available and helpful to mitigate issues.

Best,

Chasmax

[Datalyss]

There is a basic gel cell battery inside the battery back up unit. You can purchase one from radioshack or any other hardware store for $10 bucks that comes with an overnight charger. ATT's BBU aren't anything special or that complicated to work with. Sure it seems like a lot however its a cheap fix instead of paying for a landline. Verizon sold all their landlines and are working towards voip and other telco companies are working to VOIP as well being it costs more to push POTS over copper. However when that will happen no one knows. Going back to or ordering the Landline is a fix for phone issues. The cool part though with the Uverse is that even while power is done you can also still use the internet for upto 4 hrs. The Vrad has a battery backup as well should it be affected. Sit with the candles lit and surf the web while you wait for power to come back on LOL.

[Korvyn]

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4.  **Given the litigious society that we Americans enjoy/endure, AT&T may be open to legal actions by unscrupulous "Americans" and "ambulance-chasing attorneys".**

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This is the reason ATT has members sign a disclamier acknowledging the fact that the battery backup only lasts four hours.

Nick

[msquared100]

Jeff,  What UPS do you recommend for extending the U-verse back-up battery time?

[djmegahertz_1]

A couple of points.

Comcast also has to have backup power in their nodes.. Before I switch to U-Verse / U-Voice, I had comcast for phone service, and each time the power went out, I lost my phone service in seconds.. This is despite the fact that I had sufficient emergency power running my cordless phone base , internet modem etc.

I called so many times and finally after  year or two of these outages, they sent a tech out to change out their battery.

Now here is the news you want to be aware of.. The back unit (at least in my neighborhood) only provides about 6 hours of backup. This assuming the battery is brand new and working.

Not sure how long a VRAD will run without power, but I can tell you when a hurricane took out our power, the DSLAM ran for 14 hours before it died.

You can extend the RG / BBU by purchasing a longer running UPS to get you more run time, ( I have at least 12 hours now with mine)  but I got to be honest, I am not concerned as I have a cell phone.. That to me is more important than a landline.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

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djmegahertz wrote:

Not sure how long a VRAD will run without power, but I can tell you when a hurricane took out our power, the DSLAM ran for 14 hours before it died.

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During hurricane Ike, AT&T had portable generators at a lot of the VRADs to keep them running.  Unfortunately, some of the generators were stolen, and obviously, the VRAD went down when that happened.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Yup, sure did...and the cell phones had difficulty getting a signal.

[Datalyss]

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SomeJoe7777 wrote:

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djmegahertz wrote:

Not sure how long a VRAD will run without power, but I can tell you when a hurricane took out our power, the DSLAM ran for 14 hours before it died.

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During hurricane Ike, AT&T had portable generators at a lot of the VRADs to keep them running.  Unfortunately, some of the generators were stolen, and obviously, the VRAD went down when that happened.

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LMAO@ generators stolen. Another way they are losing money. 

[techbob]

I see this discussion is over a year old, but the issues are current.

When the Tronado came within a couple of blocks from our house in April, we had varying outages of cell service, power, and land line. We do have a generator so we can have power. We just changed to Uverse TV Internet and Voice. But I am curious if someone could give specifics on how to use a more generic UPS to give more battery life to the ATT gateway. Did you put it in line on the 110V side of the ATT supplied battery, or did you get some kind of adapter so you could supply power without the ATT supplied unit?

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

We don't (didn't) have Voice, and our situation was a little different.  Dead batteries in the VRAD and no power at the CO, so even a generator would not have given us anything Uverse.

McDs was our line to the outside world, even after hours, with their free Wi-Fi.  And this was the first time we lost our landline service as well.  Cell service was maxed out, usually busy and dropped calls (not normal).

I'm sure others here can give you more ideas on maintaining the VoIP BBU during an extended outage.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I have had the VOIP phone service for about 2 years.  I don't know if the BBU has failed because the last time we had a power outtage none of our phones worked anyway.  They are cordless phones and do not work when power goes out anyway.  We used cell phones and the phones at the place we spent the night.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

That's why I prefer landline, and keep an old corded phone to pull out when there are long outages (hurricanes).

We talk about saving the planet, but with all these devices needing batteries now, seems like it defeats the purpose.  But that's just my opinion.

[mikedamirault]

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Chasmax wrote:

I cancelled my first-time Uverse installation because of the RG back-up battery limitations.  I have been informed by three (3) different AT&T technical staff that the battery back-up lasts for only four (4) hours after a power outage.

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I understand where you are coming from about the BBU only lasting 4 hours when it should last longer, though at the same time, when it comes to VoIP, 4 hours after a power outage really isn't that bad

In my experience, if the power is out for longer than 4 hours, most people take action in order to find some sort of alternate power source (like a gas generator), of course 4 hours isn't such a long time, but most short power outages I have experienced, the power comes back before 4 hours

Also, when it comes to other VoIP providers, you would be lucky to get a BBU let alone one that lasts 4 hours, most standalone VoIP carriers (Vonage or Magic Jack for example) don't even have a BBU, and you have to buy a standalone UPS to power it during a power outage, and for something like Magic Jack or Skype with a USB ATA, a computer with a working broadband connection is requred, even other CVoIP carriers (TWC or Comcast Digital Phone for example) while they offer EMTAs with battery compartments, they do not offer the battery for it, so the customer is left to search for a compatible battery on their own

To be honest, I don't know of any VoIP service/carrier other than at&t that offers a BBU with their VoIP service, even if it does only last 4 hours

If it's a big issue, you can use a computer UPS, connect the BBU to that, then when the UPS dies, the BBU would pick up from there, lasting at least twice as long as the BBU itself

[jfw ACE - Czar]

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mikedamirault wrote:

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Chasmax wrote:

I cancelled my first-time Uverse installation because of the RG back-up battery limitations.  I have been informed by three (3) different AT&T technical staff that the battery back-up lasts for only four (4) hours after a power outage.

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I understand where you are coming from about the BBU only lasting 4 hours when it should last longer, though at the same time, when it comes to VoIP, 4 hours after a power outage really isn't that bad

In my experience, if the power is out for longer than 4 hours, most people take action in order to find some sort of alternate power source (like a gas generator), of course 4 hours isn't such a long time, but most short power outages I have experienced, the power comes back before 4 hours

Also, when it comes to other VoIP providers, you would be lucky to get a BBU let alone one that lasts 4 hours, most standalone VoIP carriers (Vonage or Magic Jack for example) don't even have a BBU, and you have to buy a standalone UPS to power it during a power outage, and for something like Magic Jack or Skype with a USB ATA, a computer with a working broadband connection is requred, even other CVoIP carriers (TWC or Comcast Digital Phone for example) while they offer EMTAs with battery compartments, they do not offer the battery for it, so the customer is left to search for a compatible battery on their own

To be honest, I don't know of any VoIP service/carrier other than at&t that offers a BBU with their VoIP service, even if it does only last 4 hours

If it's a big issue, you can use a computer UPS, connect the BBU to that, then when the UPS dies, the BBU would pick up from there, lasting at least twice as long as the BBU itself

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My son has Comcast Voip, their BBU is a lithium battery that fits into the base of the modem / router, similar performance as ATT's BBU with 2-4 hours talk time.

[mikedamirault]

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jfw wrote:

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mikedamirault wrote:

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Chasmax wrote:

I cancelled my first-time Uverse installation because of the RG back-up battery limitations.  I have been informed by three (3) different AT&T technical staff that the battery back-up lasts for only four (4) hours after a power outage.

---

I understand where you are coming from about the BBU only lasting 4 hours when it should last longer, though at the same time, when it comes to VoIP, 4 hours after a power outage really isn't that bad

In my experience, if the power is out for longer than 4 hours, most people take action in order to find some sort of alternate power source (like a gas generator), of course 4 hours isn't such a long time, but most short power outages I have experienced, the power comes back before 4 hours

Also, when it comes to other VoIP providers, you would be lucky to get a BBU let alone one that lasts 4 hours, most standalone VoIP carriers (Vonage or Magic Jack for example) don't even have a BBU, and you have to buy a standalone UPS to power it during a power outage, and for something like Magic Jack or Skype with a USB ATA, a computer with a working broadband connection is requred, even other CVoIP carriers (TWC or Comcast Digital Phone for example) while they offer EMTAs with battery compartments, they do not offer the battery for it, so the customer is left to search for a compatible battery on their own

To be honest, I don't know of any VoIP service/carrier other than at&t that offers a BBU with their VoIP service, even if it does only last 4 hours

If it's a big issue, you can use a computer UPS, connect the BBU to that, then when the UPS dies, the BBU would pick up from there, lasting at least twice as long as the BBU itself

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My son has Comcast Voip, their BBU is a lithium battery that fits into the base of the modem / router, similar performance as ATT's BBU with 2-4 hours talk time.

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Like I have said before, the EMTA (VoIP cable modem) used for DOCSIS based VoIP (usually Motorola brand) does have a battery compartment on the bottom of it, but it is up to the contractor if they decide to offer the battery or not, most (and all cable installer contractors I have seen) do not offer the battery for it, and if you ask them for one, they will tell you to do it on your own (meaning to get it online directly from Motorola)

I have first noticed this when my family first switched from MCI POTS service to Time Warner Digital Phone, when the power went out for the first time after the switch, so did the phone, I went to check if the EMTA had some sort of battery or something, I removed the battery compartment cover only to find out there was no battery, I have noticed the same exact thing for everybody that had Digital Phone service through their cable provider (this went for TWC, Charter, WOW!, etc.), after a while I just ended up connecting the EMTA to a UPS (we didn't bother ordering a proprietary battery for it)

When switching to U-verse, I was surprised the BBU was even offered with the service (if you order U-voice of course), as it was the first CVoIP service provider I have ever seen that even offered one

[jfw ACE - Czar]

I can't vouch for other cable companies, but through two previous experiences with Comcast cable, they have in both instances automatically provided and installed the battery in the EMTA with their VOIP service.

[mikedamirault]

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jfw wrote:

I can't vouch for other cable companies, but through two previous experiences with Comcast cable, they have in both instances automatically provided and installed the battery in the EMTA with their VOIP service.

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Could be a Comcast specific policy, I have never seen a TWC (or any other cable company for that matter) Digital Phone EMTA with a battery in the battery compartment, then again, everything about TWC is horrible, Comcast is not available where I live (central Ohio) so except for what I experience from people that do have Comcast (all of which are out of state), I don't know much about what Comcast does

[techbob]

Chasmax wrote:

I cancelled my first-time Uverse installation because of the RG back-up battery limitations.  I have been informed by three (3) different AT&T technical staff that the battery back-up lasts for only four (4) hours after a power outage.

For the benefit of those who posted above, we had a power outage and the Belkin light grey BBU was still powering the phone and internet after 6-1/2 hours, using our laptops for internet.

For longer capacity, I found barely used Belkin BBUs on Ebay for around $20 and now keep them charge up also.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Just go with landline; I'm keeping mine until they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Any reason why you NEED VoIP?

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techbob wrote:

Chasmax wrote:

I cancelled my first-time Uverse installation because of the RG back-up battery limitations.  I have been informed by three (3) different AT&T technical staff that the battery back-up lasts for only four (4) hours after a power outage.

For the benefit of those who posted above, we had a power outage and the Belkin light grey BBU was still powering the phone and internet after 6-1/2 hours, using our laptops for internet.

For longer capacity, I found barely used Belkin BBUs on Ebay for around $20 and now keep them charge up also.

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[jfw ACE - Czar]

The only reason I switched spd was the cost. Seems if I remember with POTS I could get unlimited local or long distance but not both, if we talked to our daughter in the city it was unlimited, if the wife wanted to talk to her mother a couple of miles away the charge was per minute, that and all the taxes and fees slapped on POTS. Long story short, I saved over $20 a month switching to VOIP.

[omabob]

....and I was told the back-up battery lasted 4 hours TALK TIME. I live in S.E. Louisiana...er, hurricane country and I asked that specific question. I was lied to.

[pamelaz]

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to post your comments and opinions related to this topic. This topic has been thoroughly discussed and will now be closed.