Netgear is the first major vendor of consumer routers to obtain an exemption from the US government’s sweeping ban on foreign-made routers. //
Netgear’s exemption lasts until October 1, 2027, and will have to be renewed. The FCC also gave an exemption of the same length to Adtran’s service delivery gateways. Adtran mostly provides networking products for large businesses, including cable and telecom companies, but also sells residential routers.
The Trump administration is reserving the right to block security patches and other software updates. The FCC last month gave all previously approved routers a waiver allowing software updates until March 1, 2027, leaving open the possibility that routers may not be allowed to receive updates after that date. //
The FCC imposed the device ban only on consumer-grade routers, even though network gear used by large businesses presents a natural target for the foreign hackers the router ban is ostensibly supposed to thwart. The FCC announcement of exemptions for Netgear and Adtran didn’t provide any specific reason to think the companies’ routers are more secure than others commonly used in the US. //
Nearly every router maker will have to obtain an exemption for future devices. “Virtually no consumer router is manufactured entirely within the United States,” according to a report released last week by the Global Electronics Association trade group. “Even US-headquartered brands rely on overseas contract manufacturers, and the component supply chain is rooted in Asia regardless of final assembly location: Wi-Fi chipsets from Qualcomm, Broadcom, or MediaTek (fabricated at TSMC in Taiwan or Samsung in South Korea), multilayer ceramic capacitors from Murata or TDK (Japan), and PCBs overwhelmingly produced in China and Taiwan.”
The report adds that “Netgear, Amazon (Eero), Google (Nest WiFi), Ubiquiti, and Linksys, all US-based, manufacture entirely or predominantly outside the United States and are therefore subject to the restriction for any new models. The sole major router product that potentially escapes the order’s reach is SpaceX’s Starlink router, assembled at facilities in Texas, which is not sold as a standalone product but accompanies the satellite dish as part of the Starlink service kit.”
