Working Routers Bricked and Binned: Australia's Broadband Study Ends in an E-Waste Controversy

A broadband measurement initiative run by Australia's competition watchdog has concluded in a way that has left volunteers frustrated and environmentalists concerned — with thousands of perfectly working routers rendered useless at the stroke of a deadline. The Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) program, administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), distributed SamKnows-branded whitebox routers to volunteers starting in 2020. Their job was to passively test and report on real-world broadband speeds across Australia's National Broadband Network and other fixed-line infrastructure. The program wrapped up last month, and by June 30, 2026, every participating device had been remotely bricked.

Volunteers received an email in mid-June from 'The SamKnows Team (part of Cisco)' informing them that their whiteboxes would be disabled, their accounts closed, and their measurement data deleted in accordance with licensing terms. The email directed users to dispose of the hardware through free e-waste services at retailers like JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, and Officeworks. While the language around responsible disposal was present, no pathway to repurpose or unlock the devices was offered — despite the hardware being fully operational at the time of shutdown.

The ACCC initially expected to distribute around 4,000 routers over the life of the program, with more than 2,600 deployed by December 2020 alone. The exact number disabled last month was not disclosed by the ACCC when asked by journalists. What is known is that the devices run a customized version of OpenWRT, an open-source Linux-based firmware platform widely used in the networking community. That detail is crucial: it means the routers could, in theory, be reflashed and returned to general use without any specialized proprietary software — a point one anonymous volunteer made forcefully.

At least one volunteer has already successfully reflashed their device into a functioning Wi-Fi router running standard OpenWRT, though doing so without official support apparently requires a soldering iron. That volunteer told reporters the process worked well and expressed frustration that SamKnows or Cisco hadn't simply issued a final firmware update to open the devices up to end users. 'It seems a shame to me that these perfectly good devices should all be disabled simply because the company can't be bothered to send out a final firmware update that opens the devices up to end users,' they said.

When journalists pressed both Cisco and the ACCC for an explanation, neither provided a satisfying answer. Cisco deferred all questions to the ACCC, while the ACCC's statement confirmed the shutdown without addressing questions about e-waste or alternative options. The situation echoes a similar SamKnows program in the United States, where 9,000 routers were distributed for FCC broadband testing in 2011 — and whose fate after that program ended has also never been publicly clarified. The lack of transparency across multiple programs and jurisdictions suggests this is a broader, unresolved policy issue within the broadband measurement industry.