Anyone running their own "modem"/ONT with Bell pure fibre?

DSGM · May 9, 2022

Hello fellow LTT folks.

I will be moving into a new area that has Bell's crazy fast Pure Fibre 3Gbps up/down in about 2months (so that how long I have to figure this out). In the past I have not had too much 'luck' with ISPs and they all-in-one hardware, so I want to make sure I approach this next move properly.

Basically I've been googling and trying to find the best (and simple, my wife and I are software engineers, not hardware or network specialists) solution that will still let me control everything. I have pretty much decided to go with a UDM-pro as the main brains and then add unfi switches and aps as needed.... BUT the big question is CAN I GET AWAY FROM THE HH4000?!?!?!? From googling it doesn't seem like there is any easy to do get away from the HH4000, but I asked a rep today and they said you can 'bring your own modem'. That sparked my interest and I did some more digging, with Fibre to the home I don't think you need a "modem" but instead you need an optical network terminal (ONT). Does ANYONE have ANY experience or knowledge about this??? (any recommendations would be appreciated too as I've only seen 1 media converter thing that is 1gb (and as the connection would theoretically support 3Gb, I would probably want a 10Gb unit).

Thanks in advance!

GuiltySpark_ · May 9, 2022

What they meant was Bring your own Router. Its commonly confused today as consumers sometimes call these boxes "routers" or "modems" when they're commonly all-in-one boxes and have many functions.

If this is anything like FiOS, we have ONT that's invisible to the user, its just there to take fiber and convert it to either coax or ethernet.

From there, I can use any router I want. There is no traditional "modem" like with a cable internet service.

DSGM · May 9, 2022

30 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

What they meant was Bring your own Router. Its commonly confused today as consumers sometimes call these boxes "routers" or "modems" when they're commonly all-in-one boxes and have many functions.

If this is anything like FiOS, we have ONT that's invisible to the user, its just there to take fiber and convert it to either coax or ethernet.

From there, I can use any router I want. There is no traditional "modem" like with a cable internet service.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ah yes, I was hoping that they don't mess up the naming lol but that would be asking for too much

Follow-up question:

For the "ONT that's invisible to the user" do you mean that it is built into the HH4000 or that it is located somewhere else?

I ask because I've read a few concerning things about their all-in-one... such as, if it restarts it will turn wifi back on (even if you've disabled it) and others had problems with pppoe and dmz was causing speed issues. What has been your experience with all this?

Donut417 · May 10, 2022

5 hours ago, DSGM said:

that it is located somewhere else?

In the case of Verizon FIOS is a separate device. In the case of AT&T it's built in to the router. It depends on the ISP on what you will have. Also there are no retail options for ONT's or ONT/routers as of right now. SO you're kinda stuck with what the ISP gives you.