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One legal thing mobile equipment manufacturers point at to support closed designs, is that the FCC requires that no "simple" software change can make an approve

One legal thing mobile equipment manufacturers point at to support closed designs, is that the FCC requires that no "simple" software change can make an approved device violate its approved operating parameters. Many wifi and 4g/5g radios could be turned into very general purposes software defined radios if they were completely open about the software. Primarily because they want to be able to comply with standard changes if they occur after the chips are designed, but before the point of peak sales for the chip. Parameterizing things like channel width, and even band limits to some extent are insurance against being left with a lot invested in an unsellable product. We need to remove the threat of that regulatory stick and add another atick threatening them for lack of openness. Then there is the carrot hobbyists will find a use for their chips that creates a secondary market like rtlsdr or rpi back when. Let the FCC go after people actually breaking the law rather than making sure the world is safe from things a few people might use for breaking the law.

JohnFen 3y ago
> Many wifi and 4g/5g radios could be turned into very general purposes software defined radios if they were completely open about the software. Which is why those things are usually independent subsystems. You can be completely open about everything else and still keep tight control over those things.
simion314 3y ago
Nobody asks Apple to open source the drivers or firmware. I do not think that the "apple approved partners" have access to software that can at the same time diagnose a hardware issue and change the bandwidth or other parameters to illegal values. I remember one other issue , maybe it was fixed, but if you were a partner with Apple and someone had a broken product that needed a new part you had to first send the broken part to Apple and then they would send a replacement , so a customer would have to wait for days. It is a system that encourages the user not to repair and just give more money to Apple.

JohnFen 3y ago

> Many wifi and 4g/5g radios could be turned into very general purposes software defined radios if they were completely open about the software. Which is why those things are usually independent subsystems. You can be completely open about everything else and still keep tight control over those things.

simion314 3y ago

Nobody asks Apple to open source the drivers or firmware. I do not think that the "apple approved partners" have access to software that can at the same time diagnose a hardware issue and change the bandwidth or other parameters to illegal values. I remember one other issue , maybe it was fixed, but if you were a partner with Apple and someone had a broken product that needed a new part you had to first send the broken part to Apple and then they would send a replacement , so a customer would have to wait for days. It is a system that encourages the user not to repair and just give more money to Apple.