Hardly any other router is used in German households as often as the FritzBox from AVM. The reason for this, in addition to the good quality and ease of use, is not least the long-term supply of software updates. Some devices still receive new firmware even after ten years. Nevertheless, hardware from AVM also has an expiry date – four models have now reached this point.
As the website deskmodder.de reports, AVM is discontinuing the supply of software updates and personal support in the form of telephone and email advice and repairs for two routers and two repeaters. The repeater models FritzRepeater 310 and FritzRepeater 1750E as well as the routers FritzBox 4020 and FritzBox 3490 are specifically affected by this measure with immediate effect. At least for the latter model, the end comes as a surprise.
The best Fritz boxes
AVM
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High WiFi speed
Three WLAN radio units
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No ports for analog phones
No DSL, cable or fiber optic modem installed
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Suitable for gigabit cable connections (DOCSIS 3.1).
Very high WiFi speed
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No S0 connection for ISDN devices
AVM
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Fast WiFi
Supports VDSL supervectoring
AVM
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High WiFi performance
Clever WiFi mesh
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Range at 5 GHz a bit low
No ISDN S0 connection
AVM
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Fast WiFi speed
Supports gigabit cable speed via DOCSIS 3.1
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Gigabit LAN sockets not fast enough for full gigabit speed
High power consumption
AVM
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Fast 5 gigahertz WiFi
VDSL supervectoring modem
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Small weaknesses at 2.4 gigahertz
USB ports lame
AVM
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High WiFi speed
Modem for VDSL super vectoring 35b
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Slightly short WiFi range
Just a USB port
AVM
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High 5 gigahertz speed at close range
Lots of features (including mesh)
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Partly short range with Wifi 6
Slow USB connection
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Suitable for gigabit connections
Very fast at close range via Wifi 6
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Low WiFi range
Average speed in older WLAN standards
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High cell phone speed
Lots of features
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Mediocre WiFi speed
A few connections
Complete list: The best Fritz boxes
No FritzOS 7.50 for the FritzBox 3490
For the FritzBox 7490, which is largely identical in construction but better equipped, AVM has promised an update to the FritzOS 7.50 firmware. Accordingly, owners of the 3490 model may well have hoped for the version jump until the very end. Now the corresponding tick in the official product support overview is gone and the end of support is sealed. According to Deskmodder.de, there should still be security updates if necessary, but there is no official confirmation from the manufacturer.
AVM usually guarantees software and service support for its devices for five years, but in most cases offers it for much longer. The FritzBox 3490 appeared in 2014, the FritzBox 4020 model followed about a year later. Both devices have already clearly exceeded the life cycle promised by the manufacturer, so that there should hardly be any reason for complaints on the part of the customer. AVM is currently working on the distribution of Fritz OS 7.50, which began in December 2022, in order to bring the operating system to other models in January 2023.
