Telecommunications power requirements continue to evolve and to meet new patterns of use, new battery configurations have been developed to maximise energy density, optimise space utilisation and provide for ease of installation and maintenance. Front-access terminal batteries are well-matched to these requirements and are now widely applied in rack-mounted power supplies for telecommunications. A new range of sealed lead–acid batteries are described which embody front-access terminals but adopt a somewhat different approach where applications issues have been brought into sharper prominence rather than established design and manufacturing criteria. This range uses absorptive glass mat separators and state-of-the-art electrochemical designs to produce a range of batteries that has strong user benefits and enhanced performance. The technical characteristics of these batteries are described and compared to other constructions to demonstrate their behaviour under a wide range of operational conditions.