The article about the new FCC rules that may prevent installing OpenWRT, DD-WRT or other third party firmware on Wi-Fi routers and access-point generated quite a buzz at the end of the last month. The “OpenWRT vs. FCC – Forced firmware lockdown?” presentation that started that discussion took place yesterday during BattleMesh V8 event, and the video has now been uploaded to YouTube.

Sound quality could be better, and the slides are not shown on the video, but you can download the PDF slides to have an easier time following the presentation.

Some keys points include:

The requirement to lock firmware are likely to affect all users, not only those living in countries following the FCC regulations.

Not only WiFI access points would be affected, but also phones, tablets with CyanogenMod, and more.

Vendors will have to “describe in detail how the device is protected from “flashing” and the installation of third-party firmware such as DD-WRT”

Goal of the new rules: preventing users from using illegal channels on the 2.4 GHz band, using too high transmission power, using DFS channels in 5.3 – 5.7GHz band without having DFS functionality, and avoiding interfering with (airport) terminal-area doppler weather radars.

June 1, 2016 is the cut off date when devices certified with the old rules can’t be marketed anymore.

Comments on the rules @ http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/proceeding/view?name=15-170 are accepted until August 16, 2015.

You can also read the Etherpad notes for more links.

Thanks to Zoobab again.