Hampshire-based broadband ISP Onestream, which sells internet access packages using Openreach’s national network, today claims to have become “the first” internet provider to offer all its customers the “game-changing” option to reuse their existing router when they switch – “saving money and preventing devices becoming electronic waste.”
The provider’s announcement, which comes ahead of National Recycle Week (October 14th – 20th), states that it has “decoupled” its service from its routers, and is now calling on major brands like BT, Plusnet, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media to “follow its lead and stop locking their devices down” (i.e. stop restricting access to advanced settings in their devices and preventing customers from reconfiguring them for use with a competitor).
In initial trials, Onestream say that 21% of their customers chose their “money-saving, eco-friendly option” to use their existing equipment when they switched, by following a simple process to reconfigure their routers.
The provider claims research has indicated that an estimated 9 million people switch ISPs each year (other figures say switching occurs to a much lower level than this), which, they say, suggests that if a fifth of those decided not to change router, it would prevent around 1.8 million devices being “stored or dumped” each year.
Aaron Brown, Co-founder of Onestream, said:
“Locked-down routers are a major source of e-waste, and providers who refuse to allow them to be decoupled from the service are restricting customer choice and contributing to environmental harm in a way that is completely unnecessary.
We are proud to lead the way in offering a more sustainable, game-changing option that not only saves our customers money, but also helps protect the environment from the effects of large volumes of electronic waste being destroyed or sent to landfill.
For our customers, reconfiguring an existing router is usually simpler than setting up a new one. If the major providers followed our lead, many more consumers would be able to make this choice.
We believe reusing routers should be the default choice, and we challenge other providers to join us in making a simple change that could have a huge positive impact.”
On the one hand, we agree that locking down routers is an annoying practice, particularly if you’re a more advanced user, and anything that helps to put an end to that is usually a good thing. On the other hand, a lot of ISPs out there do NOT lock down their routers or may already allow you to use a third-party device.
Meanwhile, other providers will often ask you to return your router when you leave, at which point they may reuse them with other customers or resell them (i.e. sending the kit to landfill is usually a last resort if they can’t be recycled or reused via another method). For example, BT (inc. EE and Plusnet) put a fair bit of effort into reusing the routers that get returned, so they don’t all get “stored or dumped“, and they’re not the only ones.
However, Onetsream points to another study (here), which in 2022 claimed to have found that two-fifths of households had an unused router in their home, while one in seven had two or more collecting dust – representing over 22 million devices with the potential to become e-waste. But some of that kit may be so old that it might even be dangerous (security risks) to reuse them.
Finally, we should add that not every router will be fully compatible with a different broadband network, so simply being able to reuse the kit doesn’t mean it’ll actually work properly when the physical network and ISP is changed.