A number of years ago, Cambium Networks starting selling a version of its ePMP PtMP platform called Elevate which would allow users to connect other third party wireless equipment to it in order to provide better claimed performance, one of the main companies was Ubiquiti airMAX M radios, a company which offers very similar PtMP solutions.
To get the system to work, Cambium would sell you an licence per airMAX M radio, you could flash it with new firmware provided by them and in 2018, Ubiquiti sued Cambium for this with claims of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Illinois Computer Crime Prevention Law and other laws.
Ubiquiti said that:
“Cambium’s intentional, commercially motivated, unauthorized access, reverse engineering and hacking of Ubiquiti’s M-series wireless devices and trafficking in hacked firmware that deletes, modifies, and makes unauthorized copies of portions of the Ubiquiti firmware on the Ubiquiti M-series devices, eliminates Ubiquiti copyright notices to conceal Cambium’s infringement, eliminates firmware restrictions Ubiquiti put in place to ensure operation in conformity with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements and licenses, and circumvents access control measures on the Ubiquiti M-series devices.”
This week, Cambium Networks settled the lawsuit and has a therefore paid an undisclosed sum to Ubiquiti and has since ceased to sell the Elevate software, but it will continue to support those who are using it still.
Elevate was made possible only on ePMP and airMAX M since they are based on 802.11n and can connect to standard WiFi networks. Cambiums PMP product line and Ubiquiti’s LTU line are both propriety systems and don’t use any WiFi protocols.
