Thousands of Sam Knows routers, used in Australia's Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) program, have been remotely disabled by the government, creating a significant e-waste issue. These routers, provided to volunteers to test fixed-line broadband performance on the NBN and other networks, were deemed non-functional after the program concluded on June 30.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) conducted the MBA program, which utilized whitebox routers supplied by Sam Knows. While the program's final report has been released, volunteers received emails indicating their devices and Sam Knows One accounts would be closed. The email, from "The Sam Knows Team (part of Cisco)," stated that data would be deleted per the end-user license agreement.

However, volunteers noted the routers are still operational, making their disabling an unnecessary waste of resources. The ACCC did not provide exact numbers but indicated in a 2020 report that approximately 4,000 whiteboxes were initially planned, with over 2,600 distributed by December 2020. This action raises questions about the program's lifecycle management and its environmental impact.