FCC Bans New Foreign-Made Consumer Routers

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has banned the sale of new consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers and mobile hotspots manufactured outside the United States. According to reporting from Wired, the FCC cited national security concerns, stating that malicious actors have used security gaps in foreign-made hardware to facilitate intellectual property theft, enable espionage, and attack American households.

The FCC specifically linked foreign-made routers to the Salt Typhoon, Flax, and Volt cyberattacks that targeted critical U.S. infrastructure. Consequently, these devices have been added to the Covered List, which identifies equipment deemed an unacceptable risk to national security. Bogdan Botezatu, director of Threat Research at Bitdefender, told Wired that the ban aims to harden cybersecurity for U.S. households during a period of geopolitical tension, noting that routers are strategic risks because they sit at the edge of home networks.

The ban applies to new devices, including those from U.S. companies manufactured overseas. It does not affect routers already in homes, phones with hotspot capabilities, or FCC-approved routers currently on sale, which can be sold and updated until January 1, 2029.

Manufacturers may seek "Conditional Approval" from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. To qualify, companies must disclose their corporate structure and supply chain, and provide a time-bound plan to expand manufacturing within the U.S. Companies granted this status can sell and update devices for 18 months. Wired reports that several companies have already received Conditional Approval, including:

* **Netgear** (until October 1, 2027) * **Eero**, an Amazon brand (until October 31, 2027) * **Asus** (until March 6, 2028) * **Arcadyan**, a supplier for T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T (until December 12, 2027) * **Sagemcom, Nokia, Calix, Adtran, SpaceX, Gryphon, and Zyxel**