[MonkeyDan]

Carrier-grade microwave radios are usually sold at a base price for a specific speed (e.g. 100 Mbps). Software licenses can then be purchased to upgrade the capacity (e.g. to 200 Mbps, 500 Mbps, or 1 Gbps). Licenses are also sold to enable features such as encryption and hitless backup radio failover.

[cptskippy]

That's a little different because those extra features required additional work to implement in software and just happen to run on the same base hardware. This is just hardware being artificially constrained. It's like buying a 6 pack of Coke and actually getting 8 cans but you can only drink 6 of them unless pay an extra $3 to "unlock" the two cans already in the box.