USA just ban the import of routers manufactured outside the United States. Their argument is the same one they used when banning equipment from companies like Huawei: they are a danger to national security. The United States wants 100% national routers, the problem is that, at the moment, that does not exist.
Target: routers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that foreign routers They are “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and to the safety of American citizens.” They explain that in recent years, home routers have been the target of numerous attacks “From the interruption of network connectivity to spying on local networks and the theft of intellectual property.” They cite examples such as the Volt, Flax and Salt Typhoon cyberattacks, attributed to Chinese actors and conclude that “US routers must have reliable supply chains to not provide foreign actors with a backdoor built into American homes, businesses, critical infrastructure, and emergency services.”
The router market. According to Reutersat least 60% of American routers are made in China. If we go to the best-selling routers on Amazon USAit is confirmed: TP-Link is the brand that appears the most. According to Mordor Intelligencethe leading global brands are D-Link, TP-Link, Netgear, Linksys and ASUS. Of all of these, only Netgear and Linksys are based in the United States, but neither manufactures their products there.
Since 2018, Linksys is owned by Foxconn and its routers are manufactured in its plants in Asia. Netgear is based in California, but they only design their routers, manufacturing is also done in Asia. In the case of Cisco, also American, it outsources production to various countries, including Mexico and Brazil. Google has the Nest Wifi, but They are also manufactured abroad.
Why it is important. Although the measure talks about foreign routers, in general, it is a dart launched at a very specific country: China. This measure follows the line of the one taken a few months ago against dronesa decision that mainly affected DJI drones, absolute market leaders and that was highly criticized by drone pilots. Doing the same with routers affects more brands and, above all, more users; A drone is not a massive product, but there are routers in every house.
Plus, American router companies aren’t sure either. Cisco and Netgear routers have also been exposed to cyberattacks. At the beginning of 2024, The FBI dismantled a Chinese botnet that attacked home routers of these brands. Of course, they were old routers that no longer received security updates.
And now what. Those who already have a router manufactured in China or any other country can continue using it normally, but the import of new foreign routers is prohibited. Manufacturers who want to continue selling in the US have two options: obtain conditional authorization from the government (which involves committing to move the manufacturing of their products to the US) or stop selling.
A list that continues to grow. The list of devices banned by the FCC is a timeline that takes us through American technology bans. It starts with the ban on Huawei telecommunications equipmentZTE and other Chinese companies in 2021. In 2022 they added the Russian Kaspersky, also China Mobile and China Telecom. In 2024 expanded restrictions on Kaspersky and in 2025 foreign drones were banned. 2026 has been inaugurated with routers manufactured outside the US, we will see what will be next.
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