At least in Germany we had the so called "Routerzwang". Some ISPs allowed third party equipment, but many didn't. You'd get a modem / router / AP combo device a

At least in Germany we had the so called "Routerzwang". Some ISPs allowed third party equipment, but many didn't. You'd get a modem / router / AP combo device and the ISP had complete control over the firmware. Since there was no competition, most ISPs didn't care about the quality of their software or even security updates.