Your router — the indispensable box that distributes the internet signal to your computer, phone, TV, smart speakers, video doorbell and other Wi-Fi-capable electronics — is obviously a key component of any home network. But if you need to upgrade or replace your home router anytime soon, a sudden ban by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the import of all new consumer-grade routers made outside the U.S. — which is just about all of them — may mess with your shopping plans. The FCC’s move puts routers in a category with foreign-made drones, which were banned at the end of last year.
The FCC cited national security and supply chain concerns in its announcement of the new ban.
“Malicious actors have exploited security gaps in foreign-made routers to attack American households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft,” the agency wrote in a release.
The FCC added the routers to what is known as its Covered List of communications gear and services, “deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the U.S. or the safety and security of U.S. persons.” Indeed, router vulnerabilities have been directly implicated in foreign cyberattacks over the last couple of years, including in the Volt, Flax and Salt Typhoon attacks that targeted U.S. infrastructure.
American hardware brands such as Netgear and Amazon-owned Eero are not exempt from the FCC’s action, since the products themselves are manufactured overseas.
Also affected is another prominent router company, TP-Link, which was founded in China, later spun into a standalone entity and is now based in Irvine, California. Although TP-Link had been in the U.S. government’s crosshairs for some time because of its Chinese ties, a much-speculated-on ban of the company’s products never materialized — until now.
By some estimates, China controls around 60 percent of the U.S. home router market, Reuters says. Prices for home routers vary widely, with many in the $80 to $200 range and some advanced models costing much more.
Manufacturers can seek conditional approval from the government that exempts a given model or class of routers from the ban if it is determined that they don’t pose a risk. “I’m sympathetic to the security concerns, and there is a mechanism for exemptions,” says Avi Greengart, a New Jersey–based tech analyst with Techsponential, a research and advisory firm. “If the government enforces this, all home routers are banned from the market. I expect there are folks at Amazon, Google, TP-Link, wireless carriers and cable companies feverishly filling out exemption forms today.”
Can I still use my current router?
The short answer is yes. Consumers or anyone operating a small business in a home office can use their existing router as before, the FCC says, without doing anything special. The router can continue to receive basic software and/or firmware updates that, as the FCC puts it, “maintain usability.”
What’s more, you can still purchase “previously authorized routers,” the FCC says, that remain on store shelves or are available online. For that matter, the retailer itself can continue to sell or market models that previously received the FCC’s blessing. That means only new routers will be affected.
Keeping that in mind, if you’ve been on the fence about replacing your current router, you may want to act with some haste now. Stores and online merchants could run out of inventory, and router prices may well rise.
