The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission concluded its Measuring Broadband Australia program last month, which had enlisted thousands of volunteers to test and report on broadband performance across the country. The program utilized specialized white-box routers supplied by SamKnows, now owned by Cisco, to measure internet speeds and performance on fixed-line services delivered through Australia’s National Broadband Network and other access networks.
Following the program’s conclusion on June 30, the ACCC and SamKnows disabled all routers deployed to volunteers. Participants received notifications in mid-June informing them their devices would be deactivated and associated accounts closed. The company directed volunteers to dispose of the hardware through environmental recycling services offered by local councils and major retailers.
However, several participants have raised concerns about the decision to disable functioning equipment. According to volunteers familiar with the devices, the routers operate on a custom version of OpenWRT, an open-source Linux operating system, making them capable of being reconfigured as standard Wi-Fi routers. One volunteer reported successfully repurposing their device after disabling its proprietary firmware. The initial distribution included over 2,600 units by late 2020, with estimates suggesting the total number of affected devices could reach several thousand.
Neither SamKnows, Cisco, nor the ACCC provided detailed explanations for the decision to disable the routers rather than release them for consumer use through a final firmware update. Cisco directed inquiries to the ACCC, which declined to address questions about the decision or environmental implications. The situation parallels a previous international test, in which SamKnows distributed approximately 9,000 routers for broadband testing in the United States, though the disposition of those devices was never publicly documented.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI