There are new rules being pushed by the FCC (other regulatory jurisdictions including the EU and Canada are also looking into similar rules as well) regarding devices with WiFi hardware.

Basically (according to the FCC) there is an increasing problem with WiFi devices that are transmitting outside the frequencies and power levels allowed and these WiFi devices are causing problems with things like aviation weather radar (and I think we can all agree that aviation weather radar is pretty important)

A lot of people who know about this stuff (FSF, EFF, people who work on this stuff for a day job, others) are saying that it wont be possible to comply with the new rules unless you lock the devices down to only run manufacturer provided stuff. So no more custom Android firmware on Android devices. No more DD-WRT/OpenWRT on routers.

Where this could affect the Neo900 project is that because the Neo900 has a WiFi chip in it that transmits on the frequency bands the FCC and others are concerned about, the Neo900 project may not be able to get FCC or EU certification and still remain as open as the Neo900 team wants it to be (no-one is going to want a Neo900 if the only way to legally sell/use it in the US or EU is to make it so that it can only run FCC/EU approved kernels and software stacks)

see http://savewifi.org/ for details of the campaign against these rules (including a mailing list for discussion of the rules, discussion of how to properly file FCC comments against the rules and general related stuff)