Most homes should keep the box. Some should replace it. A few should do both. The finale of Inside the Room turns four parts — how a carrier gateway is built, managed, and qualified — into one decision you can actually use: keep, replace, or bridge, with a clear path to the right buying guide if you decide to move.
You have seen the box. What you have never seen is the document that decided how it would behave years before it was built. A look at the carrier gateway requirements — the RFP, the lab acceptance gauntlet, the field trials, and the supplier qualification — that separate a box certified to be sold from one qualified to be operated.
You own the plastic box in your living room — but in a carrier gateway, the software stays part of someone else’s operating system. A look at how ISP gateways are provisioned, updated, and gated through TR-069, TR-369/USP, and TR-181, and why “managed for the fleet” is a different product from “owned by you.”
Open the gateway your ISP handed you and the router you almost bought instead, and you may find the same Wi-Fi chip — and almost nothing else in common. A look inside the hardware: the bill of materials, the thermal design, the carrier-only ports, and the certifications you never see. From an 11-year CPE insider.