All I need for my internet connection to work is my ISP's infrastructure; I want my router to work without phoning home to some bloatware belonging to its manufacturer.
Apologies; please don't down vote me for this opinion.
As I read it, there is no case of any "service" or "subscription" happening here.
It's just a design that relies on a single point of failure to determine whether or not a product can perform its designed functionality, which might be a bit ... sloppy from an engineering perspective.
In general, answering "am I connected to the Internet?" without relying on things outside your control is hard, probably because the Internet is all about things outside your direct control. :)
i.e. renting software.
People don't want to rent software. Look at the (un)popularity of Adobe CC etc. to show that.
This is why online activation/backend is just a bad idea in general.
Something I stole from the Internet a while ago:
"What is it with these customer-oriented
companies that forget where their money
is coming from?"
Look up the words "Monopoly" and "Oligopoly"
Short answer is, they don't *have* to care.
You want them more than they need you.
YOU might not like Adobe CC, but they're making plenty of money renting it to you.
[1] http://247wallst.com/technology-3/2014/06/17/adobe-earnings-...
I think there is a conversation to be had here about the proper way to tie add-on services (which are inevitable) with one-time-purchase products. Consumers want some indication of whether they can reach the Internet, but this really requires some ongoing cost on the router manufacturer's part, which cannot be recouped indefinitely from a one-time hardware sale.
we face a similar crisis in mobile apps. Apps increasingly require backend services to provide core functionality, which just isn't sustainable indefinitely with a fixed-price model. Inevitably when these companies are acquired, the backend shuts down, and people lose the product that they "paid" for.
I think in the long-term, we are going to have to move to a subscription-based model where people are paying regularly for things they used to buy one-off. But in the short-term, you can have an endless stream of VC-backed companies who can afford to take on that cost for short periods. So anyone who actually broke rank would get beaten back pretty hard by the market.