- Under the current rules, banned routers will no longer receive essential security firmware and software updates after March 1, 2027.
- The FCC’s action has effectively frozen the entire market while router companies scramble to gain approval.
- More specific information on which router companies will be subject to the ban is expected to become clearer within the next month or two.
The Federal Communications Commission bans the sale of new foreign-made routers in the US to protect national security. The ironic side effect: It could stop your current router from receiving vital security updates.
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I Review Routers for a Living. Don’t Buy a Router Right Now
The Federal Communications Commission bans the sale of new foreign-made routers in the US to protect national security. The ironic side effect: It could stop your current router from receiving vital security updates.
See full bioMarch 25, 2026 9:41 p.m. PT
Key takeaways:
- The FCC has banned the sale of new foreign-made routers in the US, and this sweeping order applies to virtually every Wi-Fi router currently available in the US market.
- My expert advice is to hold off on purchasing a new router if you can.
- Under the current rules, banned routers will no longer receive essential security firmware and software updates after March 1, 2027.
- The FCC’s action has effectively frozen the entire market while router companies scramble to gain approval.
- More specific information on which router companies will be subject to the ban is expected to become clearer within the next month or two.
In my eight years of writing and reviewing broadband and routers, I’ve rarely seen news that I would describe as unprecedented. The FCC’s recent decision to
ban foreign-made routers is absolutely unprecedented.
The
sweeping order applies to any router in which any stage of “manufacturing, assembly, design and development” occurs outside the US -- in other words, just about any router you can buy right now. The FCC order says that foreign-made routers pose "unacceptable risks" to national security.
The ban doesn’t apply to routers that were already authorized by the FCC -- that is, every router that’s currently for sale in the US -- and will only impact new models that haven’t been approved yet. That means every router that was available before the order is still available today, and router companies can still restock them using their existing manufacturing processes.
Essentially, the FCC is freezing the entire router market. As
William Budington, a technologist for the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, put it to me, “This is using an extremely blunt instrument.”
Where previous FCC bans have been limited to
specific companies, such as last year’s push to ban TP-Link routers, this one affects an entire industry. So where does that leave someone who needs a new
Wi-Fi router? Should you buy a model you’ve had your eye on in case it sells out? Or is it better to wait and see which companies the FCC considers foreign-made?
I know what I would do, but I gut-checked my advice with some industry experts. Turns out, we agree.
My advice: Hold off on buying a new router for now
When I first saw the FCC’s announcement, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much chaos this would introduce to the US router market. As I tried to tease out which manufacturers would count as “foreign-made,” it quickly became clear how deeply international the supply chains for routers are.
Understanding the scope of the ban
Take Netgear. While it’s a US-founded and headquartered company, it manufacturers routers in
Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Taiwan. With the exception of Starlink -- the company says its newer routers are made entirely in Texas,
according to the BBC -- I couldn’t find a single router brand that’s homegrown.
I don’t have any issues recommending routers that were manufactured abroad. After all, they’d already gone through the FCC’s authorization process, and I haven’t seen convincing evidence that any one router brand has more hardware vulnerabilities than another.
Thomas Pace, CEO of cybersecurity firm NetRise, told me last year during an interview about the potential
TP-Link ban: "We've analyzed an astonishing amount of TP-Link firmware. We find stuff, but we find stuff in everything.”
I just finished testing, reviewing and rating over 30 routers, and after years of resistance, I finally concluded that
Wi-Fi 7 routers are worth the money for the speeds you get. While I stand by my recommendations, with this ban in place, the router you buy today may not be any good in a year.
The future-looking security risk
Then I saw the
FCC’s Public Notice on the ban, which specifies that manufacturers can continue providing software and firmware updates “at least until March 1, 2027.” That means if you own a foreign-made router -- if you own any router, in other words -- it won’t be able to get security patches after that deadline.
That’s why I think the wise move here is to wait on buying one if you can.
Keeping your router’s firmware up-to-date is an essential part of securing your home network. If you buy from a router company that doesn’t get an exemption from this ban, you risk having an unsecured device a year from now.
It’s an ironic side effect of an order that is ostensibly designed to keep Americans safer: They may no longer be able to get the latest security fixes.
“If you're limiting the ability of people to get security updates, then you’re making the problem worse, not better,”
Alan Butler, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told me. “A lot of those routers are going to turn into pumpkins in a year unless they extend this waiver.”
By saying you can update your firmware “
at least until March 1, 2027,” the FCC does leave some wiggle room for an extension. But until we know more about which companies the FCC considers foreign-made and which will be exempt, I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending spending money on a new router right now.
Advice for immediate router needs
If your old router stopped working, I’m not going to tell you to wait for clarity from the FCC to get back on Wi-Fi -- the timeline for concern is more in years than months. A good compromise might be to buy an older budget router rather than the latest Wi-Fi 7 model you’ve had your eye on. But if you can afford to wait a month or two, it’s worth exercising some caution.
“I do think this is going to become a mess very quickly,” Butler said.
This is the messiest point in the process we’re likely to see. As the dust settles in the coming weeks, we’ll likely have better information on which routers will still be safe to use a year from now.
