The FCC Just Banned Every Router Not Made in America. Your Home Lab Is Collateral Damage.

Late Monday afternoon, the FCC dropped an order that nobody saw coming. Every new consumer router model manufactured outside the United States is now banned from sale. Not just TP-Link. Not just Chinese brands. Every. Single. One. The FCC updated its "covered list" — the national security blacklist for telecom equipment — to include all consumer-grade routers produced in foreign countries. New models can't get FCC authorization, which means they can't be imported or sold. If you already own a router, you're fine. Retailers can keep selling models that were approved before the ban. But no new foreign-designed, foreign-assembled, or foreign-manufactured router models will hit US shelves. Here's where it gets wild 🤯 Chinese manufacturers control roughly 60% of the US home router market. But this ban doesn't just hit Chinese brands. ASUS is Taiwanese. Netgear designs in the US but manufactures abroad. Even "American" brands assemble in Taiwan, Vietnam, and China. The FCC's definition of "f