On the coastal edge of Tunisia, a signal bounces between 11 rooftops and 12 routers, forming an invisible net that covers 70 percent of the city of Sayada. Strategically placed, the routers link together community centers—from the main street to the marketplace. Not long ago, the Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali government censored access to the Internet. The regime is gone now. And this free network gives the community unfettered access to thousands of books, secure chat and file sharing applications, street maps, and more.
The Sayada community network is part of the Open Technology Institute’s (OTI) Commotion Wireless project. The organization works with local groups to install mesh networks in communities across the globe—from New York to India. Commotion Wireless uses routers that utilize and extend (among other things) OpenWRT—an open source operating system with nonstandard features that make these unique networks possible. Reprogrammed and repurposed, the routers become something entirely new: a hub of information, a beacon of open access, and a symbol of freedom.
Now, the future of Commotion Wireless—and countless other programs and projects like it—might be in jeopardy. Proposed rules by the Federal Communications Commission have digital watchdogs and open source advocates worried that manufacturers will lock down routers, blocking the installation of third-party firmware—including open source software like OpenWRT and DD-WRT.
In March of 2014, the FCC updated its requirements for U-NII devices operating on the 5 Ghz bandwidth—a designation that covers a wide range of Wi-Fi devices and routers. FCC regulations aren’t the sort of the thing you keep on your nightstand for a bit of light reading—they are technical and dense. And so it wasn’t until last month that Wi-Fi hobbyists pointed out some regulatory language that might affect the open source community:
On its own, the language isn’t a deliberate war on modding. “In this particular case, this is about safety,” said William Lumpkins, Sr. Member IEEE, IEEE Sensors Council/SMC Standards Chair. Most modern equipment—from laptops to planes—emits radio frequencies (RF). And the FCC carefully orchestrates traffic to ensure signals don’t get tangled up. Devices modified to operate beyond their intended parameters can cause interference with important systems (the FCC cites a 2009 case where user-modified devices were getting in the way of Doppler Weather Radars).
RF modding could also interfere with “medical devices like pacemakers, optical implants, diabetic insulin regulators, and a slew of other medical devices,” Lumpkins said. “An insidious person could also turn a radio into a white noise generator and not allow anyone to use Wi-Fi/Bluetooth within a 1500 foot radius, which is what a few well-intentioned theater owners tried last year.”
It isn’t unusual, Lumpkins said, for the FCC to take steps to keep devices operating within their intended parameters. What is unusual, Lumpkins added, is for the FCC to call out—by name—specific software. But that’s exactly what the FCC did.