5 ms·
FCC Prohibits New Approval of Foreign-Made Consumer Routers
- aw-engineer 6mo agoWASHINGTON, March 23, 2026—Today, the Federal Communications Commission updated its Covered List to include all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries. Routers are the boxes in every home that connect computers, phones, and smart devices to the internet. This followed a determination by a White House-convened Executive Branch interagency body with appropriate national security expertise that such routers “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.”
- allears 6mo agoAre there any consumer-grade (or any grade) routers produced in the US?
- aw-engineer 6mo agoGreat question. As a data point, Purism has worked on USA supply chain for their cell phone (Librem 5), and currently ships with mixed-origin parts. "We use US companies with US fabrication whenever possible. Most distributors are based in the US with the exception of large integrated circuits that are made in a variety of countries where those companies do fabrication (US, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan); an example is the NXP CPU we use from their fabrication in South Korea." <https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/#table-of-origin https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/#table-of-origin>
- nubinetwork 6mo agoDupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47495344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47495344 possibly others
- cyanydeez 6mo agoSo on the one hand, this is an absurd ban; on the other hand, whenever this corrupt USA government does anything this absurd, it usually signals the start of the kleptocrat activities. So, whose going to come rescuse us with the CLEARLY superior technology that ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT implement the very thing the FCC is trying to protect the SMALL american from?
- theoreticalmal 6mo agoWhat makes this ban absurd?
- SR2Z 6mo agoThe United States has many close allies who manufacture routers. Seeing as how we already share intelligence and military technology, banning their routers seems... inconsistent. The part that will make it absurd is going to come when Trump suddenly greenlights some made-in-China routers because the CEO responsible made a "donation" to a "charity." Probably the presidential library.
- justonceokay 6mo agoIt is concerning that given the evidence there are still people that wait for Trump’s actions to (a) make sense and/or (b) help people.
- cindyllm 6mo ago[dead]
- bl4kers 6mo agoPractically all routers are made overseas. So unless new factories get built ASAP the U.S. is all but guaranteed to have a router shortage and a thriving grey/black market
- wtallis 6mo agoThat's missing the aspect where exceptions to the ban can be granted by the DoD or DHS, so in practice the outcome will be that effectively all routers need to appease the national security apparatus before getting FCC approval.
- idiotsecant 6mo ago
- HotGarbage 6mo agoWonder which companies will present gold-plated routers to Trump in order to get around this.
- spl757 6mo agominipc + wifi adapter = router
- spl757 6mo agoAll this means is that you can't buy the electronics in a single plastic box. A router is just a small pc with wifi and ethernet. You can buy and build your own WiFi AP and make a router. It's so trivial even a caveman could do it.
- greenavocado 6mo agoYou think far too highly of cavemen
- burnt-resistor 6mo agoSo no Deciso opnsense routers more secure than garbage ISP-rented boxes. So stupid. How about making a certification standard rather than some brain-dead xenophobic expression of stupidity?