Edit: Rather they should actually provide the spec, drivers etc
There is a worrying increase in the amount of IoT devices that will remain forever unpatched due to the (cheap overseas) manufacturers never updating them or ending support for them.
Not sure that is what we want to go back to.
But the hardware itself was robust and reliable.
Fake commercial on Saturday Night Season 2 Episode 1.
(It wasn't called Saturday Night Live until later.)
Independent inventor convicted and gaoled by AT&T for "misdemeanor attachment", the crime of attaching non-AT&T equipment to AT&T's phone network.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_L._Shaw
More on this in the first bit of "The Inventor and the Thief" on Snap Judgement:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/snapjudgment/episodes/l...
I can see why consumers and consumer advocate groups don’t like this.
Meaning, all of those sets performed more or less (in some cases less, specifically in certain special service applications) identically to a 2500/500, and at least one of those was a 2500 in a mouse shaped box.
Touch-Tone was actually a value add for the telco because it reduced register holding times in crossbar switches, and could reduce the amount of common control hardware needed, yet they still charged more for it (and the service too)
(Also, I think you mean trimline not streamline)
I'm really not going to try to defend AT&T's specific level of innovation.
I'm noting, however, that the possibility of offering a range of hardware at a range of price levels and allowing for volitional subscriber updates is possible, and was practiced.
If we alternatively enforce a floor on security updates for user-purchased routers, let’s say we require security updates for the physical lifespan of the device (10 years?), they will be baked into the price of the device in some way, and I’m not sure the majority of home router customers who essentially look to spend around $20-40 will be willing to bear that cost.
An example of that in action would be purchasing a business SKU laptop compared to a consumer one, and taking a look at the length of driver support.
You cannot shift a Gresham's Law race-to-the-bottom dynamic by insisting on consumer (or producer) willpower. You've got to enforce a floor.
In other consumer (and industrial) products, this has tended to happen through the combined mechanisms of strict liability, certification, and independent inspection (in specific cases).
Where manufacturers, or as seems more likely given the industry concentration around sales points, retailers, are liable for the consequences of unfit-for-purpose devices and services, a reasonable set of minimum requirements (including life-of-product and update requirements) can be specified, then you might see a shift to some mix of time-of-sale plus subscription service pricing and payment models.
More likely you'll see devices bundled with services (which sometimes happens), though preferably in a far more user-friendly basis than is presently the case (e.g., cable service set-top boxes).
There's actually a long history of leased-equipment business in the IT sector, most notably as pioneered by IBM in the 1950s and 1960s.