The FCC router ban has Netgear and TP-Link at each other's throats

The FCC banned new foreign-made routers on March 23 by adding them to its Covered List, the roster of equipment it won’t certify on national security grounds. The entry carves out an exception for routers that the Department of War or the Department of Homeland Security has granted a conditional approval Opens a new window , however. Five months in, 19 router makers Opens a new window hold one, including eero, Nokia, Zyxel and SpaceX. TP-Link isn’t currently among them.

Netgear cleared the process first. In an 8-K filed April 14, the firm said it was the first retail consumer router company Opens a new window approved. Netgear also noted that it can keep launching new models and that competitors that haven’t received approval can still sell whatever they have already built. The filing doubled as a press release of sorts, presenting a national security rule as a market advantage.

Netgear and TP-Link were already fighting in a Delaware courtroom before the ban was issued. TP-Link Systems sued Netgear in November Opens a new window over earnings call remarks by Netgear’s CEO that, in TP-Link’s telling, tied it to Chinese state- attacks. TP-Link argues that those remarks breached a 2024 settlement in which it paid Netgear $135 million to end a patent dispute and secured a promise that Netgear would stop disparaging TP-Link Systems. Netgear countersued on June 11 Opens a new window , the day after the Federal Register listed TP-Link Technologies as a Chinese military company. That’s the China-based entity TP-Link Systems says it split from.

So what does this mean for your IT environment? You now have to pay attention to where your router comes from. That should be as straightforward as scanning the box for the words “Made in the USA,” “Made in Vietnam,” and so on, but it’s not.

How the FCC router ban and its exemptions affect what you can buy

The FCC ban defines routers according to a NIST report on consumer-grade router security, drawing the coverage line by product class rather than by who buys it. The agency’s own FAQ counts consumer and small and midsize business routers as covered when they’re sold at retail and self-installable Opens a new window , keeping industrial and enterprise equipment outside.

The managed firewall at headquarters and the access points on the office ceiling probably land on the enterprise side. The retail router at a branch office, the hotspot in a sales rep’s bag, and your remote employees’ routers may well sit inside.

Even if you’ve got gear that falls in the wrong product class, you’ve got time to figure out what to do it. Models the FCC authorized before March 23 are still legal to sell and use. They can keep receiving firmware under a separate FCC waiver Opens a new window , extended in May, through at least Jan. 1, 2029.

Each approval covers named product series rather than a brand, and each carries an end date Opens a new window . The application guidance caps them at 18 months, with quarterly reports on a plan to move manufacturing to the United States. So an approved vendor is essentially on a leash. Arcadyan, whose approved routers are the ones T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon hand out, cleared the process in June. Sagemcom, Hitron, Askey, Humax, and Calix, which build cable and fiber gateways, all followed by July. That means the box your carrier shipped to you is likely covered, though you’ll want to check to be sure.

A router’s country of origin depends on who’s asking

At least four definitions of origin are in play for a router sold in the United States, and they don’t neatly align with each other.

Customs looks at the last big step. Strictly speaking, the words “Made in Vietnam” on a TP-Link box represent a claim the country of final manufacture. U.S. Customs and Border Protection treats origin as the country of manufacture, and later work elsewhere only changes the answer if it amounts to a substantial transformation Opens a new window . Netgear says its own consumer routers come out of Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand, so the same label can sit on a Netgear box as easily as a TP-Link one. In its Delaware counterclaims, Netgear alleges TP-Link’s Vietnamese plant handles final assembly on components that are 99.5% Chinese—a point TP-Link disputes.

The Federal Trade Commission sets a higher bar for “American.” An unqualified Made in USA claim requires a product that is all or virtually all Opens a new window made here, and the FTC warns that references to U.S. headquarters or factories can imply an origin claim on their own. Neither company’s routers are built here, which is why Netgear needed an approval at all. It’s also why Netgear’s counterclaims go after what TP-Link Systems is rather than where its routers get built. The two companies look similar when it comes to manufacturing geography, so the argument is ownership and control instead.

The FCC and the Pentagon count any major stage as production. The determination behind the ban covers routers produced abroad regardless of the producer’s nationality, and it defines production to include manufacturing, assembly, design, and development. The application for an approval asks for the country of origin of every component of the design and the onboard firmware, along with the entity responsible for software updates. This could mean that a router designed in Shenzhen and assembled in Ohio is still foreign-produced.

Netgear, meanwhile, is asking the court to rule on which company you’re dealing with. Its counterclaims run under the Lanham Act, the federal false advertising law, arguing that it’s misleading to call TP-Link Systems an independent American company. The Pentagon’s June listing names TP-Link Technologies Opens a new window , the China-based entity, not TP-Link Systems. The two sides can’t even agree on TP-Link’s market . Netgear’s filing puts it at 65% of U.S. retail routers, while TP-Link says it holds under 10% of North American residential Wi-Fi routers. A spokesperson at TP-Link Systems told me the counterclaims’ account is “inaccurate and misrepresents the facts” and that TP-Link will “vigorously pursue its claims against Netgear’s misconduct.”

Check a router’s origin before you sign the purchase order

So how can you figure out where your router is officially from? Start with the conditional approval list, which the FCC posts alongside its Covered List Opens a new window , and check it by model rather than by brand. Each entry names specific series with a termination date, so it’s worth a second look right before you buy.

From there, ask the vendor where its products come from. Any maker that holds an approval has already had to spell that out in its application. Netgear’s answer is public in the customer FAQ it filed Opens a new window with its 8-K. That document names its factory countries, says it stopped buying internet-connected components from China-owned suppliers, and keeps its router software development outside foreign-adversary control.

Even promising answers should be compared against the government’s criteria. The same FAQ tells customers the FCC has designated their routers as “trusted and safe to use,” and it still cites an update deadline the FCC extended in May. That language rests on a time-limited approval of named product series, not a safety designation.

Put the conditional approval list on your purchase checklist

The FCC’s conditional approval roster has changed every few weeks since April. The Covered List itself keeps growing, with foreign-made power inverters added in July. TP-Link may yet join the roster. When I asked whether it had applied, the company’s spokesperson would say only that it is “following the established FCC process regarding conditional approval.” This is a fluid situation, to put it mildly, so it’s a good idea to keep tabs on approvals if you have any networking equipment that might be affected.

The court fight between Netgear and TP-Link is on a slower clock, with fact discovery scheduled to run through May 2027 Opens a new window and a five-day jury trial set for April 2028. Somewhere in that stretch, both companies will likely have to answer questions their supply chains under oath. Most of that stays between the parties, but whatever surfaces in court filings and at the 2028 trial may shed more light on the situation. You don’t have to wait on any of it, though. The government’s list of questions applies to any router vendor, not just these two, and you can put it to whoever’s on your purchase order.

Netgear declined to , pointing to the public court docket and its published FAQ. A TP-Link Systems spokesperson’s appear above.

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