Verizon FiOS battery failures surprising Pennsylvania Customers [telecom]

[Bill Horne]

Verizon Fios Battery Failures Surprising North Hills Customers

Customers are responsible for the cost of new, back-up batteries

By Larissa Dudkiewicz

Verizon's motto says they "can save you a bundle." But more and more
customers with Verizon FIOS service say they are experiencing trouble
with the batteries in their control boxes, and having to buy
replacements, according to KDKA-TV.

Verizon customer Bob Gaertner of Ross Township told KDKA he noticed
the replace battery light on his FIOS control box [flashing], which meant
his backup battery was dead.

Lee Gierczynski of Verizon says the backup battery is crucial because
it provides up to 8-hours of backup power to voice service in case
there is a commercial power outage, KDKA reports.

But when Gaertner called Verizon to get a replacement battery, KDKA
says he was told his warranty was just for one year and that he was
solely responsible for the battery.

Verizon FIOS is available to about 450,000 households in western
Pennsylvania.

http://moon.patch.com/articles/verizon-fios-battery-failures-surprising-north-hills-customers-b0ebd842

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)

[HAncock4]

On May 12, 10:39 pm, Bill Horne <b...@horneQRM.net> wrote:

>
> Verizon customer Bob Gaertner of Ross Township told KDKA he noticed
> the replace battery light on his FIOS control box [flashing], which meant
> his backup battery was dead.

For what it's woth, in my own experience electronic device battery
status indicators can be rather inaccurate both ways. One of my
devices says the batteries are low when they still have plenty of
power; another device fails to warn in time of low battery. I wonder
if some of the "dead batteries" mentioned in the article were in fact
actually dead.

> Lee Gierczynski of Verizon says the backup battery is crucial because
> it provides up to 8-hours of backup power to voice service in case
> there is a commercial power outage, KDKA reports.

I've heard from some FIOS users that actual backup time is more like
3-4 hours. Anyone else have experience with backup time?

> But when Gaertner called Verizon to get a replacement battery, KDKA
> says he was told his warranty was just for one year and that he was
> solely responsible for the battery.

The article suggested the batteries were failing about after a year.
For a battery like this, I'm surprised it doesn't last longer (I am
not an engineer).. Automobile batteries, which have more of a charge/
discharge cycle, can last five years or more. A FIOS battery probably
stays on 'trickle' charge almost the entire time and isn't bounced
around like a car battery. (Of course, Verizon may be equipping its
boxes with very cheap batteries that don't last very long.)

[Doug McIntyre]

HAncock4 <with...@invalid.telecom-digest.org> writes:
>> But when Gaertner called Verizon to get a replacement battery, KDKA
>> says he was told his warranty was just for one year and that he was
>> solely responsible for the battery.

>The article suggested the batteries were failing about after a year.
>For a battery like this, I'm surprised it doesn't last longer (I am
>not an engineer).. Automobile batteries, which have more of a charge/
>discharge cycle, can last five years or more. A FIOS battery probably
>stays on 'trickle' charge almost the entire time and isn't bounced
>around like a car battery. (Of course, Verizon may be equipping its
>boxes with very cheap batteries that don't last very long.)

>From the VZ replace-the-battery video, it looks like stock 12V
lead-acid cell battery like found in your stock UPS (the model
they were replacing was even from APC, a well known UPS vendor).

You can find these sorts of batteries at any place that sells
car/motorcycle/lawn mower lead-acid type batteries.

I've found that over the years of maintaining many UPS units, that the
cheaper consumer level (ie. APC) batteries tend to last only 2-3 years
instead of 5-6 years that a car battery does.