- The FCC says foreign-made routers are no longer allowed
- Your existing home router is safe from the ban
- Around 60% of US home routers are made in China
After putting nation-wide blocks on companies such as Huawei and DJI in recent years, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now placed a blanket ban on new routers that aren’t made in America.
The ruling applies to “consumer-grade routers” that are “produced in foreign countries”, the FCC says, and approval won’t be granted to such devices in the future — though those that are already on sale and in use are safe.
As per the FCC, routers made outside the borders of the US represent both a “supply chain vulnerability” and a “severe cybersecurity risk”. In other words, there are suspicions that problems in router supply could disrupt the US economy and infrastructure, and that they could be used by foreign states to spy on the communications of US citizens.
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It’s part of a wider movement by the US to reduce its reliance on other countries for hardware and software. The FCC’s statement pointed to a series of recent cyberattacks – including Volt, Flax, and Salt Typhoon – that involved foreign-made router technology.
What does this mean for my Wi-Fi network?
Finding a router manufactured in the US isn’t all that easy — many US companies who sell routers to consumers, including Google and Netgear, have their products made overseas. Reuters estimates that some 60% of home routers in the US are manufactured in China and imported in.
Companies are going to have to change their manufacturing processes or abandon the US market it would seem — although they can apply for “conditional approval” from the FCC for new routers. At the moment it’s not clear how easy that would be to get.
However, it’s worth emphasizing that nothing is going to happen to your current router or home Wi-Fi network — that will keep working as normal. The FCC ban only applies to new products going forward, not routers that have already been approved or put on sale.
It’s possible that router manufacturers based in the US will be treated more favorably than foreign entities in the future – TP-Link is one of the companies that’s been accused of having strong connections to the Chinese government – but it’s going to take a while before we get the full picture of how this decision will play out.
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