GoKawiilKey takeaways:
The Federal Communications Commission has banned the sale of new foreign-made routers in the US. The sweeping order applies to virtually every Wi-Fi router currently available in the US market.
After speaking with seven industry experts, I recommend holding off on buying a new router if you can.
Under the current rules, banned routers will no longer receive essential security firmware and software updates after Jan. 1, 2029.
The FCC’s action has effectively frozen the entire market while router companies scramble to gain approval.
More specific information on which router companies will be subject to the ban is expected to become clearer within the next month or two.
In my eight years of writing and reviewing broadband and routers, I’ve rarely seen news that I would describe as unprecedented. The FCC’s March 23 decision to ban foreign-made routers is absolutely unprecedented.
The sweeping order applies to any router in which any stage of “manufacturing, assembly, design and development” occurs outside the US -- in other words, just about any router you can buy right now. The argument is that they pose "unacceptable risks" to national security. Ironically, the order also prevents existing foreign-made routers from receiving vital security updates after Jan. 1, 2029, an extension of the initial March 1, 2027, deadline.
The ban doesn’t apply to routers that were already authorized by the FCC -- only new models that haven’t been approved yet. That means every router that was available before the order is still available today, and router companies can still restock them using their existing manufacturing processes. So far, both Eero and Netgear have received exemptions from the ban, and will be able to sell new models in the US going forward.
Essentially, the FCC is freezing the Wi-Fi router market. As William Budington, a technologist for the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, put it to me, “This is using an extremely blunt instrument.”
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