The United States has decided to relax its ban on routers for home and small business use manufactured in third countries, and has authorized several Netgear models. It is unknown if the company has followed all the guidelines announced by the government to authorize the use of future router models in the country to achieve this authorization. But if more router models from other manufacturers are not authorized, Netgear will practically have a monopoly in the router market for end users in the US.
Netgear has confirmed that it has obtained conditional authorization from the FCC to sell its routers for home and small businesses until October 1, 2027. The agency has also commented on it in an update of its list of products affected by the measure, which prevented the import of new consumer routers to the US due to concerns that they were a source of unacceptable risks to national security, as well as the safety and protection of US citizens.
The decision caused a stir inside and outside the United States, with non-American router manufacturers quite upset with the measure. One of the best known in Europe, FRITZ!, even asked for a reinforcement of European technological sovereignty. The measure meant, de facto, the end of the possibility of having new routers for home users and small businesses, since no manufacturer of this type of equipment, not even the Americans, manufactures them on American soil. The FCC also imposed certain restrictions on hardware upgrades.
But from now on, “mesh, mobile and standalone routers for consumers» Netgear’s Nighthawk series, as well as the company’s Orbit family, CAX series cable gateways and CM series cable modems, can be sold and installed so that private homes and small businesses can have an Internet connection in the US.
From Netgear, which has traditionally manufactured its routers in third countries, they have confirmed that reviewed the FCC public guidelines to achieve this approval conditional, They submitted an application that followed them and got it approved. Without further ado. The company does not manufacture routers on US soilnor does it seem that it has any intention of doing so in the near future, so it is unknown what criteria the FCC has followed to grant them this authorization, apart from being a company based in the country.
