The Federal Communications Commission has moved to ban imports of all new foreign-made consumer routers, arguing that the devices pose a serious cybersecurity threat and could be used to disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure.
The order, announced Monday, does not affect existing models already in the country, but it bars new ones from entering the U.S. market.
Reuters reported that the FCC said a White House-convened review found imported routers pose a severe cybersecurity risk that could be exploited to immediately and severely disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure.
The agency also said malicious actors had already used weaknesses in foreign-made routers to attack households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft, citing major hacking campaigns such as Volt and Salt Typhoon.
Ban targets new imports, not devices already in homes
The new order is narrower than a total market recall.
Reuters said the FCC’s move does not impact the import or use of existing models, but will ban new ones. That distinction matters for consumers because it means households currently using affected routers will not be forced to stop using them immediately. Instead, the restriction is aimed at cutting off the future supply of new models that regulators believe create unacceptable security exposure.
The FCC order also contains a limited carveout. The determination includes an exemption for routers the Pentagon deems do not pose unacceptable risks.
That suggests the ban is being framed not only as a consumer-protection measure, but also as part of a broader national security review of communications hardware entering the U.S. market.
China dominates the U.S. home-router market
TechCrunch reported that the economic stakes are significant because China is estimated to control at least 60% of the U.S. market for home routers, the devices that connect computers, phones, and smart-home equipment to the internet.
That market share helps explain why the FCC’s action is likely to reverberate across retailers, device manufacturers, and supply chains, not just inside Washington policy circles.
The order is also part of a larger U.S. crackdown on Chinese-made tech gear. The FCC issued similar rules in December banning imports of all new models of Chinese drones.
Taken together, the actions show the commission is widening its scrutiny from aerial systems to the networking hardware sitting inside ordinary homes.
Lawmakers tie routers to national security risks
The move quickly drew praise from lawmakers who have been warning about Chinese technology in communications systems. Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House select committee on China, said the FCC’s action protects our country against China’s relentless cyberattacks and added that routers are key to keeping us all connected and we cannot allow Chinese technology to be at the center of that.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. But the issue has already spilled into legal and political fights in the U.S. Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued TP-Link Systems, a California-based router maker spun off from a Chinese firm, accusing it of deceptive marketing and allowing Beijing access to American consumers’ devices.
TP-Link said it would vigorously defend its reputation and insisted that the Chinese government has no ownership or control over the company, its products, or user data.
A fight over the future of connected homes
The broader significance of the FCC order goes beyond one category of hardware. Home routers now sit at the center of digital life, linking phones, laptops, TVs, doorbells, security cameras, and other smart devices.
By targeting routers, the FCC is effectively saying that the gateway into the modern connected household has become a front line in national cybersecurity policy.
For consumers, the immediate effect may be limited if they already own a router. For manufacturers and regulators, however, the decision signals something bigger: Washington is no longer treating cheap networking hardware as just another retail electronics product. It is treating it as infrastructure.
