TP-Link agrees to allow third-party firmware in FCC settlement

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a settlement with network-hardware manufacturer TP-Link, covering both the company's non-compliance with FCC transmission-power regulations and the company's plan to lock-out third-party firmware—including open-source firmware projects like OpenWrt. "While manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers must ensure reasonable safeguards to protect radio parameters, users are otherwise free to customize their routers and we support TP-Link’s commitment to work with the open-source community and Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers to enable third-party firmware on TP-Link routers." Under the settlement agreement, TP-Link will pay a $200,000 fine for shipping WiFi routers that could be configured to run above the permitted power limits, but it will also have to cooperate with open-source firmware projects to make sure they remain installable. TP-Link had moved to block user-installed firmware in March as its first attempt to satisfy the FCC's complaint about non-compliant power settings.