The FCC’s Router Ban Leaves the Router You Own Alone

The FCC’s ban on foreign-made routers does not touch the router you already own: the FCC says there is no restriction on using it and that owners “do not need to do anything”. You can still buy one, too. The ban stops new foreign-made models getting FCC approval, unless their maker holds a Conditional Approval, and models approved before 23 March 2026 can still be sold.

What changes is which new models reach US shelves. That is where brands now differ: Netgear, Asus and eero hold Conditional Approvals, and TP-Link, now facing lawsuits from at least four states, does not.

What the ban does and does not affect

The FCC added “routers produced in a foreign country, except routers which have been granted a Conditional Approval by DoW or DHS” to its Covered List on 23 March 2026. Equipment on that list cannot get FCC equipment authorisation, and most electronics need that authorisation before they can be imported or sold.

	What the FCC says
A router you already own	No restriction on use; owners “do not need to do anything”
Models authorised before 23 March 2026	May still be imported, sold and used, “as shown by the FCC ID on the device”
New foreign-made models without a Conditional Approval	Cannot be authorised, so cannot be imported or sold
New models from a maker with a Conditional Approval	Can be authorised within the approval’s dates
Firmware and security updates for older models	Allowed at least until 1 March 2027
Routers for the federal government’s exclusive use	Not restricted

The updates row comes from a separate waiver. Without it, the FCC’s own notice says, rules adopted in 2025 would have barred even security patches for routers that became covered. The waiver lets them continue at least until 1 March 2027, and the FCC says it will decide before then whether to extend it. It permits updates; it does not oblige any maker to ship them. How long each maker says it keeps patching is in our router update end dates.

What counts as “produced in a foreign country”

Design counts as well as manufacture. The FCC’s FAQ, quoting the national-security determination behind the rule, says production covers “any major stage” of making the device, “including manufacturing, assembly, design, and development”. The maker’s nationality is “not relevant”. A router designed in the US and built abroad is covered, and so is one designed abroad and built in the US.

There is one easing. A US-produced router does not become covered just because it contains foreign-made components, unless one of them is a modular transmitter under FCC rules.

The rule is about consumer-grade routers: those meant for homes and self-installable. The FCC’s FAQ sorts devices like this:

Counts as a router under the rule	Does not
Consumer and small-business routers sold or rented at retail	Optical network terminals (ONTs)
Portable MiFi and hotspot devices for home use	Femtocells
LTE and 5G home-internet boxes	Mobile phones with hotspot features
Routers an ISP or professional installs in a home	Industrial, enterprise or military equipment
Combined modem-router gateways	Phone adapters (ATAs) with Ethernet ports

Which brands have a Conditional Approval

A Conditional Approval is a determination by the Department of War or Homeland Security that a router, or a class of them, does not pose the risks the ban targets; the FCC then lists it as exempt. On the FCC’s Conditional Approvals tab, updated 2 October 2026, 22 router companies appear. A selection:

Company	What the FCC lists	Approval dates
Netgear	Nighthawk and Orbi routers, CAX gateways, CM cable modems	14 Apr 2026 – 1 Oct 2027
eero	eero, eero Pro, Max, PoE, Outdoor and Signal; Amazon Leo routers	22 Apr 2026 – 31 Oct 2027
Asus	RT, ROG GT, ROG Strix GS, TUF Gaming, ExpertWiFi, ZenWiFi Mesh, 5G MiFi; repeaters and access points	9 Sep 2026 – 6 Mar 2028
SpaceX	Starlink routers	27 Jul 2026 – 1 Feb 2028
Arcadyan	T-Mobile 5G home-internet boxes; AT&T BGW 720; several Verizon models	12 Jun 2026 – 12 Dec 2027
TP-Link	No entry	—

The end date matters less than it looks. The FCC says that after it, new models in that approval cannot be authorised, but devices authorised during the window can still be sold.

Approvals are also scoped to what they name. Netgear’s and Asus’s entries list product series, and the FCC publishes no list of which models count as foreign-produced. Asus’s support page describes its approval as passing “the U.S. FCC’s rigorous cybersecurity review”; the FCC’s notice of 9 September says the Department of War granted it.

Where TP-Link stands

TP-Link has no Conditional Approval on the FCC’s list. TP-Link told Ars Technica on 7 October that its “existing products remain available for sale in the US”, and that for new products it is going through the FCC’s approval process. Ars reported that this leaves TP-Link unable to sell its newest Wi-Fi 8 routers in the US for now.

The lawsuits are a separate matter. Florida’s attorney general filed suit against TP-Link Systems on 6 October 2026, and Iowa’s announced its own the same day, saying TP-Link deceived Iowans “about the origin and safety of their routers”. Ars Technica reports that Montana and Nebraska sued too, with near-identical complaints under state consumer-protection law. These are allegations, not findings. TP-Link called the suits “built on false premises” and says the devices it sells in the US are made in Vietnam and that it is an independent US company.

None of the FCC pages we read mentions TP-Link or the suits. The rule turns on where a router is produced, not on who makes it, and the suits came long after the rule.

What this means if you are shopping

The FCC’s text leaves a buyer two routes: any model authorised before 23 March, whoever makes it, and new models from makers with an approval. If you are weighing whether a Wi-Fi 7 router is worth buying before Black Friday, the ban does not stop you.

Where it bites is the newest hardware from makers without an approval, and buying abroad. The FCC says a router bought outside the US with an FCC ID can be used here without restriction, but for a covered router that never received FCC authorisation, “the general answer is ‘no’”.

If you are replacing a router because smart devices keep dropping off your Wi-Fi, nothing in the rule forces a particular brand on you. The FCC used the same mechanism in July for foreign-produced robotic devices, and as with routers, it applied to new authorisations rather than to devices already in homes, as our robot-vacuum owner report found when a forum thread claimed otherwise.

Questions people ask

Is the US banning TP-Link routers?

Not by name. The FCC rule covers all routers produced in a foreign country, and the Covered List does not name TP-Link. TP-Link has no Conditional Approval listed, so as Ars Technica reported on 7 October, its new models cannot be approved, while models approved before 23 March can still be sold.

Can I still use my TP-Link router?

The FCC says the Covered List does not restrict consumers’ continued use of routers they already bought, and that owners need not do anything. The state lawsuits against TP-Link are separate from the FCC rule and are allegations that have not been decided.

Can I still buy a router in the US?

Yes. Models the FCC authorised before 23 March 2026 can still be imported and sold, and makers with a Conditional Approval, including Netgear, Asus and eero, can still get new models authorised within their approval’s dates.

Will my router still get firmware updates?

The FCC allows updates for routers authorised before 23 March 2026, including security patches, at least until 1 March 2027, and says it will decide before then whether to extend that. Whether your maker ships updates is up to the maker.

Does the router ban include ISP modems and gateways?

Yes for combined modem-router gateways and routers an ISP installs, per the FCC’s FAQ. It lists optical network terminals, femtocells, phone hotspots and industrial or enterprise equipment as outside the definition.

What is an FCC Conditional Approval for routers?

A determination by the Department of War or Homeland Security that a router, or a class of them, does not pose the national-security risk the ban is about. The FCC then exempts it. Each router approval it lists has an end date, after which new models in it cannot be authorised.