GoKawiilLast week, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took the drastic step of banning the future import of consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers manufactured overseas. The announcement rang alarm bells, as nearly all consumer routers available are produced outside the U.S., leaving a potentially vast vacuum for anyone who needs to replace their router in the coming months. We reached out to TP-Link, Asus, Netgear, and Linksys for comment to get the deeper story on the ins-and-outs of the new measures.
What’s the purpose of the FCC’s actions?
So, why is the FCC taking this step? There's no secret that President Donald Trump and his administration have made national security a top priority, and the president's 2025 National Security Strategy determined, “the United States must never be dependent on any outside power for core components—from raw materials to parts to finished products—necessary to the nation’s defense or economy. We must re-secure our own independent and reliable access to the goods we need to defend ourselves and preserve our way of life.”
Now, it's debatable whether a Netgear Orbi 970 mesh router sitting on your bookshelf at home poses a direct threat to national security or the economy at large, but it's clearly on this administration's mind. In last week's announcement, the FCC added that foreign-made routers “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.”
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“I welcome this Executive Branch national security determination, and I am pleased that the FCC has now added foreign-produced routers, which were found to pose an unacceptable national security risk, to the FCC’s Covered List,” added FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “Following President Trump’s leadership, the FCC will continue to do our part in making sure that U.S. cyberspace, critical infrastructure, and supply chains are safe and secure.”
What are the immediate effects on consumer routers?
There are a few things to consider with this new directive, however. For starters, it doesn't affect routers that have already been imported into the U.S. and are currently available for sale (or those that have been sold and are currently in the hands of end-users). So, at least for the near-term, your average John or Jane Doe shouldn't notice any changes in availability when shopping for a wireless router from your favorite brick-and-mortar or online retailer.
However, things could change once the existing stock of routers depletes at various retailers, and even then, only if manufacturers haven’t secured a spot on the Conditional Approval list. If manufacturers aren’t able to secure Conditional Approval and consumer routers are banned from sale, we could see a shortage, which in turn would lead to price increases affecting all consumers. We've already seen what the AI craze has done to the supply of memory, which, in turn, has ushered in significant price hikes over the past year. There’s the potential for this type of scenario to play out in the router market if the U.S. becomes overly stringent with approvals.
These actions would also likely affect ISPs, which provide routers to customers when they sign up for new service. All in all, it’s a tricky situation for all involved.
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