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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States has officially issued a ban, citing "an unacceptable risk to the national security and the safety of citizens of the United States", and has completely prohibited the import of consumer-grade routers manufactured by foreign companies.
On March 24th, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a ban, citing "an unacceptable risk to US national security and citizen safety", and completely prohibited the import of consumer-grade routers manufactured by foreign companies.
According to the official statement of the FCC, the ban only applies to new foreign consumer-grade routers that have not obtained authorization from the agency. For old models that have already received FCC equipment authorization, retailers can import and sell them normally, and consumers who are currently using foreign brand routers can continue to operate them normally.
The ban also includes an exemption mechanism. If a foreign-made router is fully evaluated by the US Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security and it is confirmed that there are no unacceptable security risks, and it receives "conditional approval", then it will not be subject to import restrictions.
The main basis for the issuance of this ban comes from the "Secure Equipment Act" signed into effect by US President Biden in November 2021. This law explicitly requires the FCC to prohibit the authorization approval for radio frequency equipment that poses a national security risk. The relevant rules of the "Secure Networks Act" previously issued by the FCC provided a specific framework for the formulation and implementation of the "coverage list".
In fact, the FCC had already issued relevant regulations in November 2025, explicitly prohibiting the "coverage devices" from obtaining authorization. This ban is the implementation of those regulations and is also an important step for the FCC to continuously tighten the supervision of communication devices in recent years - previously, the agency had already introduced similar import restrictions for foreign-made products such as drones.
It is worth noting that in its statement, the FCC did not provide specific details on technical vulnerabilities or threat cases. Its risk assessment was more based on macro-level considerations of supply chain security. This regulatory measure, carried out under the guise of "national security", essentially represents a policy bias between cybersecurity and market openness. The ones most affected are undoubtedly the foreign manufacturers that dominate the US home router market.
According to industry estimates, Chinese brands and OEM products currently account for approximately 60% of the US home router market. Among them, the router giant TP-Link once had a market share of up to 65% in the US. This ban will directly raise the entry barriers for these manufacturers' new models to enter the US market.
For the global router industry, the ban brings both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, if foreign manufacturers want to continue to deeply penetrate the US market, they either need to invest additional costs to participate in the US side's security assessment and strive for "conditional approval", or accelerate the localization of their supply chains and shift the production process to within the US - TP-Link has previously carried out business separation, setting its US business headquarters in California and attempting to avoid geopolitical risks through methods such as founder immigration. On the other hand, the ban also creates market space for US-based router brands and foreign old model products that have obtained authorization, and some US-based manufacturers have begun to take the opportunity to expand their market share. The industry competition landscape may undergo a reconfiguration.
