Replying to my own post, yea, I know it's normally bad form but I just got my ATA, still have bonded DSL and decided to dork around with it a bit to see if I could break it or if it would be more reliable than I'm reading here......
To start off, I wanted to use the USB of the modem/router (Pace 5268ac) for power so that when I get my APC UPS, this:
https://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-Con ... 1577&psc=1
I can have the UPS support both the modem and the ATA. I grabbed a USB A to USB Micro cable and used that instead of the supplied 120V to USB micro cord. Plugged that USB cable in and the ethernet cable into the ATA and the modem and it powered up. Power light came on, phone and internet flashed for a few minutes and then went solid. I grabbed our "emergency phone" or the old standby corded phone that doesn't need power and plugged it in. Dial tone!:-). Called my cell, it rang. Not my number obviously 'cause they haven't moved it over yet. Called the number back, this phone rang. OK great.
Note to Sonic folks, please update your docs, you say there are two types of ATA's but you only talk about the 4 green lights on the ATA, that's only for the 701, the 801 has 3 blue lights, power, internet (globe) and phone (looks like a phone).
Alright, let's see if I can break it. I disconnect the ethernet to simulate losing internet. Wait a bit, plug it back in and I get "device not registered" when I try quickly. After a couple of minutes, the phone and internet lights are back to normal and I get dial tone again w/o having to power cycle the ATA. Cool.
Next, I unplug the ATA's USB and ethernet cable. I plug the USB back in w/o the ethernet and let it come up. After a number of minutes, I plug the ethernet back in and I again get the "device not registered" for a bit and then finally dial tone.
So it seems that the problem some folks here have been experiencing where the ATA comes up before the router and the ATA has to be powercycled might be fixed by swapping out the 701 for the 801 and/or having the 801 updated to the new firmware? To be fair, I didn't power cycle the modem as there are a number of us in the house using it at the moment and I don't want to get yelled at:-). I'll do that test later tonight or maybe early tomorrow morning since I'm usually the only one up early. I'll post my results of that.
Hope this helps folks!
Oh, and I'll also do a review of that APC UPS to see how long it lasts with no power. Based on what I see here and on some ATT forums it looks like I'll either get a Pace 5268ac in ATT form or I'll get the Arris BGW210-700. According to the APC docs, the Arris lasts 15+ hours on UPS and the Pace 13+. I'm hoping I get the Arris because of this:-). Dunno if that's the right thing to hope for but we will see.