223 lines
11 KiB
HTML
223 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2020-03-02">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - the Barriers to Router Freedom in Germany</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - the Barriers to Router Freedom in Germany</h1>
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<p>Consider this hypothetical scenario: you moved
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to a new apartment. Apart from all the stress of packing, transporting, and
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unpacking all your stuff at your new home, you also had to deal with
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getting utilities connected. The electric company turned out to be
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difficult to deal with: they said you had to change your TV set,
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toaster, refrigerator and most of your lamps.</p>
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<p>They said that they couldn't guarantee you would have electricity at
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all unless you bought a whole new set of appliances from them. You
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don't understand: your stuff worked perfectly fine in your old
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place.</p>
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<p>The water company was not much better. They told you that your old
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washing machine was "not supported" and that you would even have to
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change your toothbrush or you risked polluting the water network of the
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whole city for some unexplained reason. We are guessing you would no
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doubt find this scenario very hard to believe. We do not blame you: it
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is silly beyond the believable.</p>
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<p>But now consider this very <strong>real</strong> situation:</p>
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<h2>Max and Lucas moved</h2>
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<p>Not together, but yet more or less simultaneously. We (my colleague
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Lucas and I, Max) moved to new flats in our respective cities in
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Germany and decided we wanted to connect to the Internet through our
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own routers. Since August 2016, this has been allowed thanks to a <a
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href="/news/2016/news-20160725-01.html">new law which the FSFE has
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advocated for since 2013</a>. According to the law, Internet Service
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Providers (ISPs) can offer their own technical equipment, but they must
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not force it upon you. In order to allow for free choice of modems and
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routers, ISPs have to provide the necessary information for the
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installation and usage of communication equipment and services without
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the client having to ask for it and for no charge.</p>
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<p>But we soon realised that our ISPs, Unitymedia and Vodafone, were
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not willing go through this process. This is a story of soft and hard
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barriers, and how to overcome them individually and as a community. It
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is important not to ignore the hurdles ISPs put in our way. <a
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href="/activities/routers/">Router Freedom</a> offers too many
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advantages, including those of independence, security, privacy and
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control of our technology, to be ignored.</p>
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<figure>
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<img
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src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/f0bb57b6899e3429728de5051c7b0f44.png"
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alt="Four benefits of Router Freedom"/>
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<figcaption>
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Some of the various benefits of Router Freedom
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2>Soft barriers</h2>
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<p>In November 2019, Lucas experienced a so-called soft barrier
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courtesy of Vodafone, his ISP. When he moved to a new flat, he
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requested a DSL connection. After waiting for a entire month for the
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connection, the ISP's customer service tried to convince Lucas not to
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use his own router, stating several times that a private router is more
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expensive, hard to install, not secure and could cause damage to the
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public network. Besides, something even more concerning was that they
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threatened Lucas by saying that in case he insisted having a private
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router, they would not be able to provide technical support. All that
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said, at least they provided with no delay the necessary login
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information.</p>
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<p>This behavior is called a "soft barrier" because, although Vodafone
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did not prevent Lucas by contractual means to use his private router or
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deny vital information for the router configuration (login data),
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Vodaphone's customer service subtly tried to convince Lucas to not use
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his own router with the customary economic and commercial arguments
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that ISPs usually push onto their customers. In most of the cases, it
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is sufficient to scare people away from Router Freedom.</p>
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<h2>Hard barriers</h2>
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<p>In December of the same year, I moved to a new city and chose a
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business cable Internet connection offered by Unitymedia (meanwhile
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largely incorporated by Vodafone). After several calls, a technician
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finally visited my new home and successfully installed the ISP's
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default modem. Of course, I immediately noted that I wanted to use my
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own router. The technician told me that this was not allowed.</p>
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<p>In a call with the service hotline, after defending some of the
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already mentioned soft barriers, I learnt that one of the features I
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had ordered, a static IPv4 address, is <a
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href="https://kabel.vodafone.de/hilfe_und_service/faq/article/question/was-muss-ich-zur-endgeraetefreiheit-wissen">not
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available when using an own router</a>, apparently because <a
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href="https://www.vodafone.de/business/hilfe-support/unitymedia-faq/hardware.html#ich-habe-feste-ip-adressen-moechte-aber-trotzdem-einen-fremd-router-nutzen-habe-ich-ein-sonderkuendigungsrecht">the
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address could only be mapped to their devices</a> – even though my own
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router was the exact same model.</p>
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<p>Although I am now able to use my own router (after a long series of
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hotline calls and waiting), I still cannot use an essential feature I
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ordered. This is a "hard barrier" because customers who want to
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exercise their freedom of choice are treated worse. At least I can
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enjoy the freedom of using equipment which I own and which I can
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control, but I will report this misconduct by my ISP to the national
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Federal Network Agency and a consumer protection organisation (see
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below).</p>
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<figure>
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<img
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src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/10752e931d933d93367d350a6bf2ec66.jpg"
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alt="A manikin working on a router"/>
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<figcaption>
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Picture by Konrad Twardowski, licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.0
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2>How to deal with barriers?</h2>
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<p>Everyone should be able to choose their own modem or router. We call this Router Freedom and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must not restrict it. In Europe, and specifically in Germany, this freedom is assured by several directives and laws. It is ironic that we, the two coordinators of the FSFE's Router Freedom campaign, experienced first hand how German ISPs are still reluctant to allow people use their own devices.</p>
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<p>In case you are in Europe and your ISP is trying to convince you to use their router, here is a small guide of how to proceed:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>If they tell you that you are not allowed to use your router,
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you can report the fact to the <a
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href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/national-regulatory-authorities-member-states">National
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Regulatory Agency</a> or the <a
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href="https://eba.europa.eu/consumer-corner/national-competent-authorities-for-consumer-protection">Consumer
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Protection Authority of your region</a>. There may also be
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state-independent organisations and platforms to report issues, e.g.
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<a
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href="https://www.marktwaechter.de/mitmachen/beschwerdeformular">Marktwächter</a>
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in Germany. Please share your experience in the <a
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href="https://community.fsfe.org/c/activities/router-freedom">FSFE's
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forum</a> to help us and others.</li>
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<li>If you can use your router, but the ISP refuses to provide the
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login data for the public network, this is also a case for the
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National Regulatory Agency or Consumer Protection Authority. Please
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follow the same procedure explained above.</li>
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<li>If you are allowed to use your router, but the ISP refuses to
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provide technical support, you must know that every ISP is obliged by
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contract to provide technical support in relation to your access to
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the Internet. Although they can refuse to support your private
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router, all other issues concerning the connection must be handled by
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them; and, according to our experience, most issues with routers can
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be solved with a quick search on the Internet.</li>
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</ol>
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<h2>How many people are affected by Router Freedom barriers?</h2>
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<p>Germany was one of the first European countries to implement a
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Router Freedom law, following the <a
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href="/activities/routers/timeline.html">efforts of the FSFE's campaign
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for Router Freedom</a>. The number of people using their own routers
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has been growing at a slow but steady pace. According to <a
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href="https://www.golem.de/news/drei-jahre-routerfreiheit-vodafone-kritisiert-nutzer-mit-eigenem-router-1908-142996.html">latest
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reports</a>, Vodafone, the second largest ISP in Germany, has 3,5% of
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their cable customers using their own routers. For Unitymedia, a large
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cable ISP bought by Vodafone, the number is 2%. </p>
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<figure>
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<img
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src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/0eebfabf3c1893aad52325b0d96a3ace.png"
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alt="Router Freedom statistics for Vodafone in Germany"/>
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<figcaption>
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Router Freedom and Vodafone Germany
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>Complaints about violations against art. 3(1) of the Net
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Neutrality Regulation, which also protects Router Freedom, are growing
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faster. The German National Regulatory Agency, the authority
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responsible for the monitoring of the net neutrality rules in the
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country, has registered this to be an "increasingly important isue" for
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the <a
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href="https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/Areas/Telecommunications/Companies/MarketRegulation/NetNeutrality/NetNeutralityInGermanyAnnualReport2018_2019.pdf">report
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period of 2018-2019</a> (p. 11), although they consider their options
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to intervene in such cases to be limited.</p>
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<p>The increasing tendency gives us motivation to keep up raising the
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flag for Router Freedom. <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Your
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support</a> makes the difference for the awareness spreading about this
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simple but powerful idea: free your router!</p>
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<h2>Take back your rights!</h2>
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<p><a href="/activities/routers/">Router Freedom</a> concerns all of
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us. Check out <a
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href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/CompulsoryRouters">our wiki
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page</a> where you can find all necessary information to get active
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against the disruption of Router Freedom and to raise awareness among
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your community and political representatives. Share your experience in
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the <a
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href="https://community.fsfe.org/c/activities/router-freedom">FSFE's
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forum</a> so we can stand together for Router Freedom!</p>
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<p>Long-term political and public action for Router Freedom requires
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resources. Please consider <a
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href="https://my.fsfe.org/support">joining the FSFE as a supporter</a>
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and help us continue this and other
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activities.</p>
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</body>
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<discussion href="https://community.fsfe.org/t/fear-uncertainty-and-doubt-the-barriers-to-router-freedom-in-germany/411" />
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="routers">Router Freedom</tag>
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<tag key="competition">Competition</tag>
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<tag key="policy">Policy</tag>
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</tags>
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<author id="mehl" />
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<author id="lasota" />
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</html>
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