T-Mobile owner wants to turn your old phone into a Wi-Fi router, so don't throw it away

Deutsche Telekom, the majority owner of T-Mobile, is taking the "idle hands are the devil's workshop" saying quite literally and has been pretty busy lately.

Well, the EU telco has not come up with some mind-blowing, cutting-edge AI technology (so far, it seems that the US and China are leading on that front). But Deutsche Telekom has a pretty good idea of what to do with your old smartphone: a Wi-Fi router!

The company (in collaboration with an industry consortium including many other companies, including Fairphone), has developed an innovative approach to reusing electronic components.

The result is called the NeoCircuit Router, a fully functional prototype that incorporates parts from older devices, reducing both resource consumption and CO2 emissions. By keeping essential materials like metals, rare earth elements, and precious metals in circulation, this initiative is all about making electronic production more sustainable.

The NeoCircuit Router reuses key electronic components such as mainboards, processors, and memory chips from older smartphones like the Fairphone 2. Physical connectors, including DSL and USB ports, as well as accessories like power plugs and cables, are also repurposed.



In its first phase, the prototype has already achieved a circularity rate of 70%, meaning that most of its materials come from reused or recycled sources. Additionally, reusing processors alone has cut the device's carbon footprint by approximately 50% while significantly reducing electronic waste.

Although the current prototype does not include a housing, any future casing would be made entirely from recycled materials, which is a piece of cake.

Dr. Henning Never, project lead at Deutsche Telekom, emphasizes that this approach moves beyond conventional electronics recycling, where many components are destroyed or incinerated. Instead, functional parts such as processors, memory, and transistors are directly reused to build new devices.

He compares this method to a modular system, where existing components are repurposed into fully operational hardware. If widely adopted, this approach could revolutionize consumer electronics manufacturing.

Bertrand Pascual, VP of Sales Broadband Business Solutions at Sagemcom, sees this shift as a major opportunity. He believes that reusing processors from mobile devices for alternative applications can extend their lifespan and reduce the need for new raw materials.

Deutsche Telekom and its partners will present the NeoCircuit Router at the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, so check it out, if you're in the area.