US Bans All Foreign-Made Consumer Routers

This is for new routers; you don’t have to throw away your existing ones:

The Executive Branch determination noted that foreign-produced routers (1) introduce “a supply chain vulnerability that could disrupt the U.S. economy, critical infrastructure, and national defense” and (2) pose “a severe cybersecurity risk that could be leveraged to immediately and severely disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure and directly harm U.S. persons.”

More information:

Any new router made outside the US will now need to be approved by the FCC before it can be imported, marketed, or sold in the country.

In order to get that approval, companies manufacturing routers outside the US must apply for conditional approval in a process that will require the disclosure of the firm’s foreign investors or influence, as well as a plan to bring the manufacturing of the routers to the US.

Certain routers may be exempted from the list if they are deemed acceptable by the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security, the FCC said. Neither agency has yet added any specific routers to its list of equipment exceptions.

[…]

Popular brands of router in the US include Netgear, a US company, which manufactures all of its products abroad.

One exception to the general absence of US-made routers is the newer Starlink WiFi router. Starlink is part of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

Presumably US companies will start making home routers, if they think this policy is stable enough to plan around. But they will be more expensive than routers made in China or Taiwan. Security is never free, but policy determines who pays for it.

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Posted on April 2, 2026 at 1:28 PM • 26 Comments

Comments

Who? • April 2, 2026 1:32 PM

Right now, I am not really sure US-manufactured devices are the most clever choice… better using open-source devices whose firmware has been written by an international team of qualified developers.

US has become an odd player in the international playground.

Who? • April 2, 2026 1:38 PM

U.S. corporations have a long history of bad practices, including installing backdoors on their own devices (Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet…); these ones are certainly not the devices I would consider for a secure environment.

Who? • April 2, 2026 1:49 PM

For consumer routers, I would choose a small open-source device with a suitable ONT, compatible with the service provider network, and operating system—either OpenWrt, for less technically savvy customers, or an OpenBSD-based design.

KathyRo • April 2, 2026 3:16 PM

Security is never free.. and in this case it’s not even secure.

I wouldn’t trust the US government to keep their mitts off those routers under any administration but especially the current one.

Dumb questions • April 2, 2026 3:18 PM

Former Can PM Steve Harper’s gov banned huawei equipment years ago … I think security was the reason.

Who certifies that chinese made equipment doesnt have backdoors?

Who certifies that open source equipment doesnt have backdoors?

Arent all of these vulnerable to side channel attacks?

Arent any of these vulnerable if theyre unpatched, which they are likely unpatched because youre supposed to buy a new one rather than maintain the existing one?

i ask because honestly i dont know

You’d think monitoring your outbound traffic would be more important.

Felix • April 2, 2026 3:38 PM

So, my router was made in Taiwan for a Swedish company. I bought it directly, then loaded pfsense onto it for a few years, before switching to OPNSense.

It has been running great (limited only by the BSD Intel GigE support) for over a decade. Still, the up/down performance is faster than my internet connection, so I’m not planning to upgrade.

OPNsense seems to patch every 2 weeks. Not exactly consumer friendly, so I don’t see grandma changing. What will end up happening is that ISPs will get their rental routers approved, so they can charge $10/month rental fees and non-technical people will end up renting those.

A few companies will get a few models, no doubt the $300 models, through the Govt’s certification stuff. The $70 models won’t be available in the USA, so expect Canada and Mexico to have new profitable list of equipment for sale to US residents. It won’t just be Tylenol-3, but the $70 Asus routers too.

Asus has 9 more years on the FTC settlement which requires them to follow security best practices. I’ve been using an Asus wifi router as an AP for about 3 yrs. The older TP-Link router had support/pathes about 1 yr from TP-link. That taught me a huge lesson.

“Beware cheap network/computing devices made in China without a non-Chinese brand backing it up with a reputation at risk.” Chinese companies don’t seem to care much about their reputation. Companies that put their branding on Chinese-made equipment primarily to be sold in the USA definitely do care about their reputation. I’ve some some excellent customer service from those brands.

I’ve had issues with my wifi devices connecting to Netgear equipment. At the specific location with this issue, it was an issue for anyone not using MS-Windows or a iPhone. Everyone else had problems – so we replaced the wifi part of the netgear with Ubiquiti APs – which fixed everything.

Loren • April 2, 2026 4:24 PM

Every cell phone sold in the US has a router feature. Is the US stopping import of all new cell phone designs as well?

Rollins • April 2, 2026 8:23 PM

… very difficult to enforcr this ban & a large black-market will develop.

of course, the FCC has NO Constitutional authorty to impose such a ban.

lurker • April 3, 2026 2:59 AM

There’s a big assumption here: that US firms are capable of making a router without too many security holes, and that they are more capable than existing vendors in patching holes when they are found.

Bob Paddock • April 3, 2026 7:24 AM

This is the actual FCC document.
Its intention is to “onshore” router production and design within five years.
Including firmware and components where feasible.

‘https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-278A1.pdf

a. A detailed bill of materials for the router for which the applicant is seeking the
Conditional Approval;
b. Country of origin for all components in the router and country of origin for the design
of the router;
c. Entities responsible for IP ownership and software updates for the router;
d. Justification on why any foreign manufactured router is not currently manufactured in the United States, including why these foreign sources were selected and whether
alternatives exist;
e. Locations of manufacturing, final assembly, and testing for the router for which the applicant is seeking the Conditional Approval;
f. Country of origin for any onboard software and firmware;
g. Quantitative assessment of supply chain concentration by country, expressed as both a percentage of total value and production volume; and
h. Identification of any single points of failure in the supply chain for the router
including sole source suppliers, the country of those sole-source suppliers, and a description of contingency plans if those suppliers become unavailable..

MikeOh Shark • April 3, 2026 8:57 AM

Regardless of where the router is manufactured, I would like to see a requirement that the router receive support for a minimum of 5 years after date of sale (not manufacture) with massive fines when the company inevitably says that the router can’t be updated if within the 5 years.

Joe12345 • April 3, 2026 11:55 AM

“very difficult to enforcr this ban & a large black-market will develop.”
Probably not a bad thing, that black market’s logistical supply chains could then be repurposed to provide non-age-verifying respects-your-freedom operating-system hardware to long suffering Brazillians, and 3d printers to long suffering New Yorkers.

Alnd “you don’t have to throw away your existing ones”, what crazy person would even contemplate doing that even if the regulators had tried to make up a law to ban existing equipment, throwing away perfectly good hardware because some crazy regulators don’t like it, I don’t think anyone would do that especially not with such insane inflation occuring. I think a better point to make would have been that the ban is on the import of new models, models which have been in production for many years can still be brought in without extra difficulty.

TexasDex • April 3, 2026 12:49 PM

The idea that this will improve security is laughable.

There were rules in place, related to security updates, privacy, etc, that would actually make routers more secure and protect consumers, and the Trump administration rescinded them.

Winter • April 3, 2026 4:25 PM

@TexasDex

The idea that this will improve security is laughable.

That’s because it is about getting payouts from foreigners. It’s Tariffs 2.0, or the External Revenue Service of early 2025.

Security is a fig leaf for grifting

Ian Z • April 3, 2026 8:18 PM

This has been out for a few days now, but nobody has asked:

what is a router?

If a device merely transforms one kind of physical link to another kind, e.g. telephone to ethernet (as in DSL), is it covered by this? Such things used to be called “modems” but the distinction has been lost because ISPs have pushed integrated devices which serve both this function and true routing.

It matters: if pure modems are not covered, making your own router out of an obsolete PC is trivial. If modems are included, not so trivial at all.

Clive Robinson • April 3, 2026 11:41 PM

@ Who? To Ian Z,

As most posting here are assuming this is about,

“Fraud by any other name”

Plain and simple.

It’s been long known that the US can not compete with foreign competition on a technical basis.

It’s not the fault of those in the US actually working (except as voters)… It’s the fault of shareholders and stupid stupid manglemant non invested runners of the businesses just seeking bonuses via “rent” or similar on the advice of Neo-Con Mantra as inflicted on genuflecting MBA and similar idiots who can not understand anything as complex as “simple math” or basic “survival evolution”.

Two points to note,

1, From @Winter “That’s because it is about getting payouts from foreigners. It’s Tariffs 2.0, or the External Revenue Service of early 2025.”

It’s not just “foreigners”… Tariffs always hit the home nation consumers the hardest… But “grifters” care not a jot who or what they harm, as long as they get their “boots filled” as they “grab and run” their 30% or more off the top as their over sized pockets are seemingly “over capacious” and always have room for more.

The man in charge at the FCC is clearly a “grift enabler” in this respect and would be no great loss to society if incarcerated indefinitely etc, in fact society would see a “net benefit” (if you will pardon the pun). But is also just a second rate “follow on act” to DODGiE etc at best following somebody elses plan. So is entitled to a “Brown Tongue Award” as he does rather more than “butt sniff”.

2, From @lurker “There’s a big assumption here: that US firms are capable of making a router without too many security holes, and that they are more capable than existing vendors in patching holes when they are found.”

Whilst with time the workers would “skill-up” manglement won’t and they won’t allow the workers to either. Because people with skills are dangerous to manglement and their plans in just about every way imaginable to neo-con mantra idiots.

They don’t want competition they just want “rent”, and skilled people are best placed to take it away from them as FOSS and similar demonstrate over and over…

Which brings us onto the obvious question,

3, From Ian Z, “what is a router?”.

It kind of falls under that old truism about P0rn of “It’s indescribable in public, but you know it when you see it!”

This article however is a timely reminder,

https://patrickmccanna.net/7-configuration-changes-that-turn-a-multi-homed-host-into-a-switch-router/

But remember those old terms of “Bastion Hosts” and “DMZs” from last century that predated “firewalls”. Time to “dust them off and give a new layer of deep-shine polish.

But… The whole effort is fairly pointless… Because the stupidity that is Current AI LLM & ML Systems has pushed the price of even the cheapest “Single Board Computers”(SBCs) beyond the realm of use due to “Memory Prices”.

Thus the use of old “32bit” hardware from the “junk pile” should not be ruled out but Agent-P’s nonsense should really be amputated at the neck for the sake of all humanity.

To everyone else who has commented on this thread so far, that I’ve not “name checked” I still salute you as your comments are all to the point and thoughtful.

Winter • April 4, 2026 7:11 AM

@Clive

It’s not the fault of those in the US actually working (except as voters)…

When Americans realized learned people did not vote Republican/Conservative, they decided that learning should be curtailed. So, poor people got miserable schooling.

Better to outsource learned and educated work to foreigners without voting rights.

Hence, a shortage of qualified technical people. Especially when you lock up the foreigners you recruit to build the factories and train the people that should produce your All American Tech.

Yeehaw cowboy • April 4, 2026 1:29 PM

@Winter

EdUcation is largely funded with state and local taxes (mostly property and sales taxes) in the usa. The war against taxation was always bipartisan. You might be surprised by how many well paid surbabanite unionized people who work in government funded areas are quite happy to vote for whomever will keep their taxes as low as possible.

We are clearly not all in this together.

lurker • April 4, 2026 1:51 PM

It’s not just the sackings. and the disestablishment of bureaux responsible for cybersecurity. One hopes that the people responsible for a directive such as this are resposible intelligent adults. Of course being American we can forgive them for not reading a foreign/European rag such as Heise [thanks @Winter]. But this is all public knowledge, so the conclusion grows stronger that they have their fingers jammed in their ears while simultaneously chanting “Nyah, nyah, nyah.”

Rontea • April 5, 2026 9:47 AM

Such measures, while addressing pressing cybersecurity and supply chain vulnerabilities, risk triggering retaliatory trade actions and undermining long-standing global trade norms. Policymakers must balance national security priorities with the potential for trade friction, supply chain disruptions, and erosion of international trust. Thoughtful engagement with allies, transparent communication with the private sector, and investment in domestic manufacturing are essential to mitigate the strategic and economic repercussions of these decisions.

lurker • April 5, 2026 2:06 PM

@Rontea

“Trade friction, supply chain disruptions, and erosion of international trust” are beyond potential, they are now reality brought on by an administration that does not understand balance of trade or the effects of tariffs. Worse, it appears not to care about the recklessness of its actions.

Clive Robinson • April 5, 2026 2:34 PM

@ Winter, lurker,

With regards the, Heise article,

https://www.heise.de/en/background/The-US-router-ban-and-its-transparent-justification-11241412.html

They raise a couple of points one of which will hit right on DMCA 1201 that Cory Doctorow is campaigning against.

The Heise article notes,

“What counts as ‘consumer-grade’, and even what counts as a ‘router’, remains open. And to this day, the FCC remains silent on questions from heise online about whether open-source software is classified as domestic or foreign, and what about foreign patents.”

Read those last five words again…

Anyone with foreign patents has the right to stop them being used in the US for “deceptive, unlawful, or illegal use”.

Because they are now “specifically excluded from use in manufacturing in the US” the US Defence Manufacturing and other acts do not apply…

And it would be ludicrous for the US to argue otherwise.

Thus much “security” will be “lost”.

Also anything after 4G mobile phones will likewise be effectively lost.

The rest of the world will simply carry on working in a World Market that a less and less relevant US market that will decay and “rot on the vine” behind.

As for MAGA this is not the way to do it.

Security Sam • April 5, 2026 3:56 PM

With existing bandwidth bandits
The likes of Comcast & Verizon
If you don’t use their own router
You’ll be in a black hole horizon.

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