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Ofcom UK Slashes Superfast Fibre Optic Broadband Battery Backup to 1 Hour

Posted: 19th Dec, 2011 By: MarkJ
fibre optic cableofcom uk average broadband ISP speeds March 2011The communications regulator, Ofcom UK, has today released controversial new "guidelines" on the use of battery back-up in superfast fibre optic broadband ISP services. Since 2008 the regulator has "supported a battery duration of 4 hours", which protects lifeline services (e.g. the ability to call emergency services even during a power cut), but following a consultation this has now been slashed to 1 hour.

Traditional copper line based broadband services (e.g. 'up to' 24Mbps ADSL2+) do not require a battery backup because they independently draw power from the local telephone exchange. By contrast the fibre optic cables used in Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH / FTTP ) services do not conduct electricity and thus require a battery to cover any power cuts.

Ofcom Statement

The consequence of this limitation in fibre optic networks is that, if there is a power failure at the property, and absent any other measures being taken, the telephone will stop working. Hence calls, including calls to the emergency services, are not possible.

In practice, a back-up supply of power to ensure that calls can be made over optical fibre networks during a power cut is normally supplied via a battery installed at the customer's premises. The question that arises from solutions of this type is the length of time over which the battery back-up remains operational. It is on this question that we have recently consulted.

Ofcom launched an official consultation on fibre optic battery back-up during June 2011 (here) and its conclusion supports their original proposal, which is for the "minimum" back-up time at new-build FTTP / FTTH developments to be set at 1 hour. The primary reasons appear to be that "4 hours’ protection may be expensive to procure, difficult to install and hard to maintain".
Ofcom's New Fibre Optic Battery Back-up Guidelines

* A battery back-up should always be provided to support publicly available telephone services (PATS) provided over FTTP.

* The minimum duration of the back-up facility should be 1 hour.

* Communications providers should take appropriate steps to ensure that the needs of vulnerable consumers requiring additional protection, who depend on 999/112 to a greater extent that the majority of the population, are addressed.
Ofcom claims that enforcing a minimum period of 4 hours, which some would say risks prioritising cost over public safety, could have constrained the rollout of fibre optic broadband services and "[limited] the effectiveness of the facilities". Hard luck if you're one of the many who suffer prolonged power cuts each year, some of which go on for days or even weeks.

In fairness many people also own mobile phones and Ofcom has done the right thing by telling ISPs to meet the needs of "vulnerable consumers", many of whom will require "additional protection". Unfortunately Ofcom's statement doesn't go into much detail about what that would mean.

Never the less we can't help but feel that Ofcom could have gone further. ISPs should at least be informing their customers about the level of back-up provided. Likewise battery size, cost and efficiency has improved a lot since 2008 but this doesn't appear to have been given a lot of consideration.
Ofcom FTTP/H Battery Back-up Guidelines (PDF)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/superfast-broadband/statement/Battery_Backup_Statement.pdf
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