EU considers approval process for custom ROMs on smartphones and routers

The European Commission is considering an approval process to ensure that custom firmware works on products such as smartphones. This is because of the safety and consumer confidence in the products. The committee is holding a consultation round.

According to the European Commission, devices with radio technology, such as smartphones and routers, are increasingly reprogramming. This means that hardware can work differently with new software. For example, certain components such as fans can be switched off and energy consumption can be increased. According to the committee, these changes can affect the safety of a product. Radio equipment includes devices that can connect wirelessly to the Internet.

The committee is also afraid of network problems. For example, firmware can ensure that a device works on frequencies that it is not allowed to work on by national governments. According to the committee, new firmware can also have an impact on the use of a telephone, making it more difficult to reach emergency services, for example. This would also breach consumer confidence in such devices.

Although developing this software can be difficult, according to the committee, in some cases the software can also be found online. This firmware may have been created and published by third parties without any guarantee that the phone will work normally after that. Think, for example, of custom ROMs for smartphones.

At the moment there is already legislation that guarantees the safety of telephones, but it only applies to the first edition of a telephone. The software that can then be put on it is not covered by that legislation.

The committee is now considering changing that. In concrete terms, the committee is considering five options. In the first case, the situation will remain as it is now. The second requires manufacturers to self-regulate, ensuring that the firmware for radio equipment does not compromise the security and usability of a phone.

The European Union itself introduces rules for the latter. Option three states that ‘firmware manufacturers’ inform member states and the commission about how the software guarantees the security and usability of a device. The fourth option specifies that radio equipment must have ‘certain properties’ that allow only firmware that has been demonstrated to meet the requirements to be installed. The last option is a combination of the third and fourth options. The committee does state that it is necessary to prevent manufacturers from abusing mandatory verification to prevent third-party software from being used.

For the time being, this is a consideration to which the European Commission wants reactions from the public and from companies. Among other Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi warns on Twitter for the plans. He says the new rules could make installing custom firmware impossible. The commission’s feedback period ends on March 4, midnight.

The European Commission emphasizes that for the time being this is a plan and that nothing has been decided yet. There is therefore a possibility that the committee decides not to implement the plan based on the responses. However, it is also possible that it will become more difficult for developers based on this plan to develop and publish their own firmware. A user or developer could then be dependent on the European Union or the telephone manufacturer for this.