But the FCC took issue with something else TP-Link was doing with its routers. Yeah, it looks like the company has agreed to “work with the open-source community and Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers to enable third-party firmware”.
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The FCC began a new rule-making process after the FAA complained that some illegally modified router radios operating in the unlicensed bands were interfering with terminal doppler weather radar (TDWR) at airports.
TP-Link admitted it had broken United States radio frequency rules by selling routers that could work at power levels higher than the approved limits. The company has settled the matter with the FCC, and part of their agreed penalty includes allowing the installation of open source firmware on their routers. The wireless networking equipment industry is now struggling to meet new FCC rules-designed to prevent violation of the strict bandwidth and power limits set on wireless devices-while also continuing to allow for innovation in third party, open source software, such as OpenWRT, Tomato, DD-WRT, and others.
The TP-Link settlement was announced in the midst of a controversy spurred by those new FCC rules.
TP-Link halted sales of the offending hardware and distributed a software update to existing owners to remove access to the country code user setting.
“While manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers must ensure reasonable safeguards to protect radio parameters, users are otherwise free to customize their routers”, said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau in an official statement posted in response to the settlement.
TP-Link will have two years to bring all of its 5GHz Wi-Fi products sold and marketed in the U.S. into compliance with the settlement – ie: allow people to install custom firmware with protections in place to prevent any tampering with the radio’s broadcasting parameters. For example, open source firmware shouldn’t be able to change the frequency or power outputs to values that would violate FCC regulations.
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This agreement is in stark contrast to TP-Link’s earlier policy of shipping routers with signed, locked firmware, in keeping with the FCC’s rule.
