- Deutsche Telekom’s neocircuit router presses for sustainability in consumer electronics
- The project seeks to convert old smartphones into routers
- The neocircuit router aims to reuse 70%
Deutsche Telekom is exploring a new way to reduce electronic waste by reusing old smartphone components to build routers.
Hardwareluxx reports (originally in German), say that Deutsche Telekom has developed the Neocircuit router, a prototype device that consists mainly of reused parts, in collaboration with an industrial consortium.
The prototype of the neocircuit router integrates processors, memory chips and physical connectors of old smartphones, with the aim of a circularity rate of around 70%.
Convert the old smartphones into routers
Dr. Henning Never, project manager at Deutsche Telekom, believes that the neocircuit goes beyond the typical recycling of electronic waste, while Bertrand Pascual of SageMCom believes that the reuse of smartphone processors for other applications does not retain the resources but also that also makes financial sense.
Deutsche Telekom has established an ambitious goal to achieve almost complete circularity for its technologies and consumption devices by 2030. If it is widely adopted, this approach could reduce production costs by at least 20% compared to the manufacture of new components .
This is not the only initiative aligns with broader efforts from the brand industry such as Framework and Fairphone, which promote modular designs to improve longevity, repair and reuse.
The project faces challenges, since many modern devices use attached components and patented processors, which makes extraction and reuse difficult. However, the neocircuit router will be presented at the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona on March 3.
Modular design initiatives are not new, but it’s always great to see more of them. In case it has been lost, I reported on the announcement of the laptop 16 of Framework, while Fairphone and nothing offer sustainable and modular alternatives to the best business phones alternatives.
