Powerful Hardware Turned into E-Waste
What you're looking at is another unfortunate example of perfectly capable hardware becoming electronic waste long before its technical lifespan is over.
This is the AirTies Air 4960, an AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 mesh extender/access point featuring impressive hardware:
- Broadcom BCM6752 triple-core ARM Cortex-A7 SoC (up to 1.5 GHz)
- Broadcom BCM43684 4x4 Wi-Fi 6 radio with 160 MHz channel support
- Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
- Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
- Around 4.5 W power consumption
From a technical perspective, this device is still more than capable of delivering excellent performance in many home and enterprise networking scenarios.
- The Real Issue
The hardware isn't obsolete, the software ecosystem is intentionally locked down.
Many devices like this are heavily restricted by manufacturers or Internet Service Providers (ISPs), preventing owners from repurposing them once official support ends or the service contract expires.
Meanwhile, open-source firmware projects such as OpenWrt, DD-WRT and Tomato have demonstrated for years that networking hardware can remain secure, functional, and useful far beyond its commercial lifecycle.
Unfortunately, locked bootloaders, proprietary firmware, missing documentation, and closed-source drivers often make that impossible.
Sustainability Is Also About Software Freedom
We regularly discuss sustainability, circular economy, and reducing electronic waste.
Yet perfectly functional networking equipment ends up in recycling bins, not because the hardware has failed, but because users are prevented from installing alternative software.
- The hardware already exists.
- The raw materials have already been mined.
- The manufacturing energy has already been spent.
In many cases, all that's missing is the freedom to install an alternative operating system.
- A Better Approach
I would like to see manufacturers embrace a more open ecosystem by providing:
- Unlockable bootloaders
- Public hardware documentation
- Support or at least tolerance for open-source firmware
- Longer software support lifecycles
This would benefit users, enterprises, developers, the open-source community, and ultimately the environment.
Not every retired device is obsolete, many are simply made obsolete through artificial restrictions.
#OpenSource #OpenWrt #DDWRT #WiFi6 #Networking #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #RightToRepair #EmbeddedLinux #Broadcom #eWaste #Technology
