// WIRED US/UK — MOBILE & WEB
What You Need to Know About the Foreign-Made Router Ban in the US
In March, the Federal Communications Commission banned new consumer internet routers manufactured outside the US, citing national security concerns. The ban doesn’t affect any routers already in American homes or currently on sale in the US, but all new routers aimed at the consumer market will need to be approved. That has inevitably included some of the best new routers to come out in the past six months.
While the headline is that foreign-made consumer routers are banned, manufacturers can apply for exemptions, and some have been approved. There's no need to throw out your router, and you'll still find plenty of mesh systems on the store shelves. But what does this mean for you?
Updated September 2026: I added the news that Conditional Approval has been granted to several more companies, the biggest being Asus.
“Malicious actors have exploited security gaps in foreign-made routers to attack American households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft,” the FCC wrote. “Foreign-made routers were also involved in the Volt, Flax, and Salt Typhoon cyberattacks targeting vital US infrastructure.”
Foreign-made consumer routers were added to the Covered List, which details equipment and services “deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”
Bogdan Botezatu, director of Threat Research at cybersecurity firm Bitdefender, says this ban is a step to harden the cybersecurity readiness of US households, given ongoing geopolitical tensions.
“Consumer routers sit at the edge of every home network, which makes them an attractive target and a strategic risk if compromised at scale,” he says. Asked whether he thinks the risk is real, Botezatu says yes, though there’s no easy way to prove intent. “[Internet of Things] devices, including routers, are a weak point across the internet.”
The ban only affects the sale of new Wi-Fi routers and mobile Wi-Fi or hotspot devices aimed at consumer households. The ban does not apply to existing FCC-approved routers on sale in the US or to phones with hotspot features. Previously purchased routers already in use in homes across the country are also fine and aren't part of the ban, according to the FCC’s FAQ. These routers can continue to be sold, used, and updated with new firmware, at least until January 1, 2029.
Any new router manufactured outside the US now requires FCC approval before it can be imported, marketed, or sold in the US. This includes routers from US companies manufactured overseas, which is the vast majority of the market right now.
This is decidedly murky. The ban is concerned with “consumer-grade” routers and could include any designed or manufactured outside the US or manufactured by companies that are not completely US-owned and operated. All the major players in the market, including Netgear, TP-Link, Asus, Amazon’s Eero, Google’s Nest, Synology, Linksys, and Ubiquiti, fall under the definition. As do most, if not all, of the routers supplied by internet service providers in the US.