GoKawiilThe Trump administration has roundly criticized America's technological sector for its dependence on international partners. In its 2025 National Security Strategy, the administration named securing independent supply chains a pillar of its economic and national security policies, warning that the US "must never be dependent on any outside power for core components." Perhaps nowhere have these concerns been more acute than in the home router market, where the White House has put considerable energy into untethering America's Wi-Fi networks from foreign manufacturers.
In March 2026, the FCC banned all international home internet routers, citing how "malicious actors have exploited security gaps in foreign-made routers to attack American households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft." Citing recent cyberattacks like Salt Typhoon, Volt and Flax, the FCC's National Security Determination argues that companies manufacturing routers can inject backdoors into their products, giving foreign intelligence agencies and hackers unfettered access to American networks. To ward of such intrusions, the Trump administration has pushed the FCC to ban any router whose components, assembly, or designs were produced overseas. And while firms are allowed to continue selling routers currently on the market, the FCC barred them from providing software updates to their existing customers after 2027.
Already, the ban has hit several roadblocks, as the FCC looks to implement a ruling that many critics warned was unrealistic. In May, the FCC issued a public notice that routers can "continue to receive software and firmware updates that mitigate harm to U.S. consumers" until at least January 1, 2029. The move comes after the National Consumer Technology Association pushed the FCC to relax its stringent ruling, citing supply chain shortages "in critical substrate material and memory modules" that could cause "disruptions to millions of Americans' broadband services." Critics pointed to the revision as an indication of the contradictions inherent in the restrictions, noting that banning software updates could cause more security problems than it solves. As it stands, a wholly-domestic router supply chain may merely be wishful thinking.