Telus Fibre - Router & Boost Box Question

[SportsGuy]

Hi everyone,

I have a new Telus Fibre install at my new home.  It seems to consist of two boxes - what appears to be the router/modem box (A white thin rectangle bolted to the wall) and a cylinder gizmo that they tell me is the Telus Boost unit.  I have a couple of questions:

1) Is there WiFi in the router/modem?  I had an old ActionTec modem and the units were one and the same.

2)  Do I need to have the Boost unit plugged into the router at all times?  At the last house, we had Telus Fibre with an older white cylinder modem that also did WiFi and had two boost units.  I didn't need to keep the two boost units plugged in all the time though things were more reliable when I did.  That doesn't seem to be the case here, as when I unplug the boost unit, WiFi stops working.

3)  I'm on a plan that has me financing the boost unit...is it truly the case that I need to pay to buy the Boost unit?  It's the current (or was the current) promotion as of a few weeks ago.  I would have thought the WiFi service would be built into the router like it used to be.

Thanks!

Thanks for 

[NFtoBC · Accepted solution]

The first device is an ONT (Optical Network Translator) it converts the light on the Fibre Optic to Ethernet. The second device is the router, and creates your network. Boost units are about the size of a sandwich, and extend the Wi-Fi signal from the router to distant parts of your home. See this link for more info.

You should not be paying an additional charge for the router, and to my knowledge, Boost units are a one-time fee.

[SportsGuy]

Thank you, this is super helpful!  So I am paying for something I am not actually getting.  Good to know.  I'll contact Telus and advise them of same.

[kamak]

I believe the "new" boost units look like the "new" router. both are WiFi6.  NFtoBC  is correct that the second unit is the LAN/WiFi router. Does it have a Fiber optic cable going into it and also 4 LAN I/O? It should say something like fiber optic around the socket that is fed the cable from the Fiber modem you said is square and mounted to the wall. But I've seen the new boosters for the new WiFi 6 installs and they look a little like the new router, cylindrical. So its a bit confusing for people about what is the booster and what is the router. I believe the boosters don't have any LAN connectors. They probably are just like the older booster/extenders, WiFi only. The older sandwich looking WiFi boosters/extenders are only WiFi 5 not WiFi 6 so you wouldn't want those anyways. They probably misinformed or you got crossed info about what that cylindrical router is.

[kamak]

Wow, my bad, there are a few different units being offered by Telus, depending on where you are located I assume. I've seen a Arcadyan  cylindrical router unit that is fed fiber and this other cylindrical router that is fed a ethernet cable from the wall unit's 10Gbs LAN I/O to a 2.5Gbs LAN I/O on the router. So I'm a bit confused also. Sorry.