diff --git a/swarm/network/stream/stream.go b/swarm/network/stream/stream.go
index 101c68352b..48034d5e64 100644
--- a/swarm/network/stream/stream.go
+++ b/swarm/network/stream/stream.go
@@ -72,6 +72,11 @@ const (
 	RetrievalEnabled
 )
 
+// subscriptionFunc is used to determine what to do in order to perform subscriptions
+// usually we would start to really subscribe to nodes, but for tests other functionality may be needed
+// (see TestRequestPeerSubscriptions in streamer_test.go)
+var subscriptionFunc func(r *Registry, p *network.Peer, bin uint8, subs map[enode.ID]map[Stream]struct{}) bool = doRequestSubscription
+
 // Registry registry for outgoing and incoming streamer constructors
 type Registry struct {
 	addr           enode.ID
@@ -90,10 +95,6 @@ type Registry struct {
 	spec           *protocols.Spec   //this protocol's spec
 	balance        protocols.Balance //implements protocols.Balance, for accounting
 	prices         protocols.Prices  //implements protocols.Prices, provides prices to accounting
-	// the subscriptionFunc is used to determine what to do in order to perform subscriptions
-	// usually we would start to really subscribe to nodes, but for tests other functionality may be needed
-	// (see TestRequestPeerSubscriptions in streamer_test.go)
-	subscriptionFunc func(p *network.Peer, bin uint8, subs map[enode.ID]map[Stream]struct{}) bool
 }
 
 // RegistryOptions holds optional values for NewRegistry constructor.
@@ -128,8 +129,7 @@ func NewRegistry(localID enode.ID, delivery *Delivery, syncChunkStore storage.Sy
 		maxPeerServers: options.MaxPeerServers,
 		balance:        balance,
 	}
-	//assign the default subscription func: actually do request subscriptions from nodes
-	streamer.subscriptionFunc = streamer.doRequestSubscription
+
 	streamer.setupSpec()
 
 	streamer.api = NewAPI(streamer)
@@ -530,15 +530,15 @@ func (r *Registry) requestPeerSubscriptions(kad *network.Kademlia, subs map[enod
 
 		for bin := startPo; bin <= endPo; bin++ {
 			//do the actual subscription
-			ok = r.subscriptionFunc(p, uint8(bin), subs)
+			ok = subscriptionFunc(r, p, uint8(bin), subs)
 		}
 		return ok
 	})
 }
 
 // doRequestSubscription sends the actual RequestSubscription to the peer
-func (r *Registry) doRequestSubscription(p *network.Peer, bin uint8, subs map[enode.ID]map[Stream]struct{}) bool {
-	log.Debug(fmt.Sprintf("Requesting subscription by: registry %s from peer %s for bin: %d", r.addr, p.ID(), bin))
+func doRequestSubscription(r *Registry, p *network.Peer, bin uint8, subs map[enode.ID]map[Stream]struct{}) bool {
+	log.Debug("Requesting subscription by registry:", "registry", r.addr, "peer", p.ID(), "bin", bin)
 	// bin is always less then 256 and it is safe to convert it to type uint8
 	stream := NewStream("SYNC", FormatSyncBinKey(bin), true)
 	if streams, ok := subs[p.ID()]; ok {
diff --git a/swarm/network/stream/streamer_test.go b/swarm/network/stream/streamer_test.go
index 4425d9a5ef..cdaeb92d0f 100644
--- a/swarm/network/stream/streamer_test.go
+++ b/swarm/network/stream/streamer_test.go
@@ -1050,9 +1050,11 @@ func TestRequestPeerSubscriptions(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// simulate that we would do subscriptions: just store the bin numbers
 	fakeSubscriptions := make(map[string][]int)
+	//after the test, we need to reset the subscriptionFunc to the default
+	defer func() { subscriptionFunc = doRequestSubscription }()
 	// define the function which should run for each connection
 	// instead of doing real subscriptions, we just store the bin numbers
-	requestSubscriptionFunc := func(p *network.Peer, bin uint8, subs map[enode.ID]map[Stream]struct{}) bool {
+	subscriptionFunc = func(r *Registry, p *network.Peer, bin uint8, subs map[enode.ID]map[Stream]struct{}) bool {
 		// get the peer ID
 		peerstr := fmt.Sprintf("%x", p.Over())
 		// create the array of bins per peer
@@ -1066,8 +1068,6 @@ func TestRequestPeerSubscriptions(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 	// create just a simple Registry object in order to be able to call...
 	r := &Registry{}
-	// ...the requestPeerSubscriptions function, which contains the logic for subscriptions
-	r.subscriptionFunc = requestSubscriptionFunc
 	r.requestPeerSubscriptions(k, nil)
 	// calculate the kademlia depth
 	kdepth := k.NeighbourhoodDepth()