Aussie gov’t tells volunteers to throw out thousands of functioning test routers

澳大利亚政府要求志愿者丢弃数千台功能正常的测试路由器

Last week, thousands of SamKnows routers were bricked after a government program ran its course. In 2020, as part of a program conducted by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian government’s chief competition regulator, thousands of volunteers received routers to help test and report on the typical speed and performance of broadband plans in Australia. (More specifically, the Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) program targeted fixed-line broadband services provided over the NBN, Australia’s government-owned wholesale open-access broadband network, as well as services delivered over other access networks.)

上周，随着一项政府项目的结束，数千台 SamKnows 路由器被远程“变砖”。2020 年，作为澳大利亚政府主要竞争监管机构——澳大利亚竞争与消费者委员会 (ACCC) 所开展项目的一部分，数千名志愿者收到了路由器，用于协助测试并报告澳大利亚宽带套餐的典型速度和性能。（具体而言，“测量澳大利亚宽带”(MBA) 项目针对的是通过 NBN——即澳大利亚政府所有的批发型开放接入宽带网络——提供的固定线路宽带服务，以及通过其他接入网络提供的服务。）

According to the final report that the ACCC distributed, the routers are whiteboxes that were “supplied by SamKnows” and that “perform tests to measure internet performance using test servers maintained by SamKnows and hosted in Australia.” Last month, the program concluded, and the ACCC released its final performance report (PDF). Subsequently, the routers used for the program were bricked after June 30.

根据 ACCC 分发的最终报告，这些路由器是“由 SamKnows 提供”的白盒设备，它们“使用由 SamKnows 维护并托管在澳大利亚的测试服务器来执行测量互联网性能的测试”。上个月，该项目结束，ACCC 发布了最终性能报告 (PDF)。随后，用于该项目的路由器在 6 月 30 日之后被远程禁用。

Ars Technica reviewed a copy of an email that an MBA volunteer received in mid-June informing them that the program would end on June 30, 2026 and further stating: Service Termination: Your whitebox will be disabled, and your SamKnows One account will be closed. The email, signed by “The SamKnows Team (part of Cisco),” noted that after June 30, the devices would stop collecting data and that users’ “measurement and registration data will be deleted in accordance with our retention obligations under our end-user license agreement.”

Ars Technica 查看了一封 MBA 志愿者在 6 月中旬收到的电子邮件，通知他们该项目将于 6 月 30 日结束，并进一步声明：服务终止：您的白盒设备将被禁用，您的 SamKnows One 账户将被关闭。这封由“SamKnows 团队（思科旗下）”签署的邮件指出，6 月 30 日之后，设备将停止收集数据，用户的“测量和注册数据将根据我们最终用户许可协议中的保留义务进行删除”。

However, as one MBA volunteer pointed out to Ars via email, the routers are still working, making the decision to disable the devices an avoidable e-waste risk. When asked by Ars, the ACCC didn’t specify the number of SamKnows routers disabled last month. However, in a report about the MBA program released in December 2020 (PDF), the ACCC said it initially expected to release about 4,000 whiteboxes throughout the program’s duration and had distributed “over 2,600″ by December 2020. The report noted that the ACCC retained an “adequate pool of whiteboxes to allow for the expansion of our reporting to cover, for example, emerging [retail service providers] and new speed tier plans.”

然而，正如一位 MBA 志愿者通过电子邮件向 Ars 指出的那样，这些路由器仍然可以正常工作，因此禁用这些设备的决定造成了本可避免的电子垃圾风险。当 Ars 询问时，ACCC 没有具体说明上个月禁用了多少台 SamKnows 路由器。不过，在 2020 年 12 月发布的一份关于 MBA 项目的报告 (PDF) 中，ACCC 表示预计在项目期间总共发放约 4,000 台白盒设备，截至 2020 年 12 月已分发了“超过 2,600 台”。报告指出，ACCC 保留了“充足的白盒储备，以便扩大报告范围，例如覆盖新兴的[零售服务提供商]和新的速度等级套餐”。

Salvageable / 可挽救的设备

The volunteer I emailed with and who asked to remain anonymous due to privacy concerns noted that the whiteboxes run a custom version of OpenWRT, an open source, Linux-based operating system for embedded devices. This means the devices “can easily be reflashed into normal Wi-Fi routers with very decent performance,” they said. The volunteer added: I personally reflashed my own device (an operation that requires a soldering iron when you do it without company support), and it is now working great as a Wi-Fi router running OpenWRT. So everything already exists to do this …

与我通过电子邮件联系的一位因隐私担忧而要求匿名的志愿者指出，这些白盒设备运行的是 OpenWRT 的定制版本，这是一种用于嵌入式设备的开源 Linux 操作系统。他们表示，这意味着这些设备“可以很容易地重新刷机，变成性能相当不错的普通 Wi-Fi 路由器”。该志愿者补充道：“我个人重新刷写了自己的设备（在没有公司支持的情况下，这需要用到电烙铁），它现在作为运行 OpenWRT 的 Wi-Fi 路由器工作得很好。所以实现这一点的所有条件都已经具备了……”

Regarding hardware disposal, SamKnows’ email to volunteers reads: You may unplug your whitebox and we encourage you to dispose of it in an environmentally responsible manner. Free e-waste recycling services can be found at your Local Council & Resource Recovery Centre or your nearest Officeworks, JB Hi-Fi, or Harvey Norman store. Still, the volunteer I spoke with believes that something better could be done to ensure that thousands of functioning routers don’t become trash. “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.

关于硬件处置，SamKnows 给志愿者的邮件中写道：您可以拔掉白盒设备的电源，我们鼓励您以对环境负责的方式进行处置。您可以在当地议会和资源回收中心，或最近的 Officeworks、JB Hi-Fi 或 Harvey Norman 商店找到免费的电子垃圾回收服务。尽管如此，与我交谈的志愿者认为，本可以采取更好的措施，确保数千台功能正常的路由器不会变成垃圾。他们说：“在我看来，这些完好的设备仅仅因为公司懒得发布一个向终端用户开放设备的最终固件更新就被[禁用]，这实在太可惜了。”

In a similar study, SamKnows distributed 9,000 routers to volunteers to help test Internet speeds in the US for a report published in 2011. The FCC and SamKnows haven’t publicly stated what happened to those routers. In an attempt to learn why the routers were disabled, I reached out to SamKnows via the email used to contact MBA program volunteers. Although I received an emailed response saying that my message was “being reviewed,” I never received an answer from SamKnows. I also didn’t receive a response from ThousandEyes, the networking intelligence company that Cisco bought in 2020 and whose website SamKnows.com now redirects to.

在类似的研究中，SamKnows 曾向志愿者分发了 9,000 台路由器，用于协助测试美国互联网速度，并于 2011 年发布了报告。FCC 和 SamKnows 尚未公开说明这些路由器的去向。为了了解路由器被禁用的原因，我通过联系 MBA 项目志愿者的电子邮件地址联系了 SamKnows。虽然我收到了一封回复，称我的信息“正在审核中”，但我从未收到 SamKnows 的答复。我也没收到 ThousandEyes 的回复，这是一家思科在 2020 年收购的网络情报公司，目前 SamKnows.com 的网站已重定向至该公司。

When I contacted SamKnows-owner Cisco, a company representative told me, “Per SamKnow’s agreement with the ACCC, all inquiries related to the Measurement Broadband Australia program should be directed to the ACCC.” It’s unclear whether Cisco had any say in the routers being disabled, even though it may have had the technological capability to help keep them running. Notably, Cisco acquired SamKnows in 2023, six years after the ACCC announced that it would use SamKnows for the MBA program.

当我联系 SamKnows 的所有者思科时，一位公司代表告诉我：“根据 SamKnow 与 ACCC 的协议，所有与‘测量澳大利亚宽带’项目相关的咨询都应直接向 ACCC 提出。”目前尚不清楚思科在禁用路由器一事上是否有发言权，尽管它可能具备帮助维持设备运行的技术能力。值得注意的是，思科是在 2023 年收购 SamKnows 的，而 ACCC 在 2017 年就宣布将使用 SamKnows 进行 MBA 项目。

I asked the ACCC why the routers were disabled instead of opened up via a final firmware update and for the ACCC’s response to e-waste concerns. A spokesperson sent a statement that didn’t answer those questions and read: The ACCC delivered the MBA program with SamKnows, its testing provider. The SamKnows “Whitebox” is a dedicated hardware-based device that was provided to a few thousand volunteers accepted into the program. The device was manufactured and supplied by SamKnows and used to measure broadband performance as part of the program. With the conclusion of the Measuring Broadband Australia program, the whiteboxes deployed during the MBA program have been disabled and are no longer operational.

我询问 ACCC 为什么禁用这些路由器而不是通过最终固件更新将其开放，并询问 ACCC 对电子垃圾问题的回应。一位发言人发来了一份声明，但并未回答这些问题，声明写道：ACCC 与其测试提供商 SamKnows 共同交付了 MBA 项目。SamKnows “白盒”是一种专用的硬件设备，提供给了被该项目录取的数千名志愿者。该设备由 SamKnows 制造和供应，并作为项目的一部分用于测量宽带性能。随着“测量澳大利亚宽带”项目的结束，MBA 项目期间部署的白盒设备已被禁用，不再运行。

The statement also noted that “volunteers are encouraged to unplug their disabled whitebox and dispose of it in an environmentally responsible manner via free e-waste recycling services.” The relevant stakeholders appear reluctant to provide a clear explanation of why working routers were bricked when another solution was available. It’s possible that SamKnows/Cisco and/or the ACCC don’t want to be associated with future potential issues or…

声明还指出，“鼓励志愿者拔掉已禁用的白盒设备，并通过免费的电子垃圾回收服务以对环境负责的方式进行处置。”相关利益相关方似乎不愿就为何在有其他解决方案的情况下仍将正常工作的路由器“变砖”给出明确解释。SamKnows/思科和/或 ACCC 可能不希望与未来潜在的问题产生关联，或者……