FCC Bans Every New Wi-Fi Router Made Outside The US Over 'Severe' Security Risks

In a politically-motivated move, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has updated its Covered List of restricted goods to include "all (new) consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries", citing "unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States". President Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy also paints the move in an economically motivated light, stating that "the United States must never be dependent on any outside power for core components—from raw materials to parts to finished products—necessary to the nation's defense or economy. We must re-secure our own independent and reliable access to the goods we need to defend ourselves and preserve our way of life."

At a minimum, this move serves as a way to strong-arm router manufacturers into producing new hardware stateside rather than overseas. Since no current consumer router manufacturers (Netgear, Cisco, etc) actually produce hardware in the United States (being either partnered with ...