issued an update to the “Covered Equipment or Services” list, encompassing all equipment currently prohibited from purchase in the United States. The latest addition to this list now encompasses all consumer-grade “routers manufactured in a foreign country.” The specific routers included are never detailed, meaning that even if a company is headquartered in the United States, if its manufacturing occurs outside U.S. borders, its products will no longer be available for purchase by Americans nationwide.
This action is part of an ongoing strategy by the U.S. government aimed at regulating the integration of foreign products, particularly electronics, within the United States. Just last year, the FCC sought to prohibit a well-known drone manufacturer from selling new products in the U.S. Additionally, a few years back, a prominent international electronics firm, Huawei, was also barred from selling its products in the U.S. after being placed on the Cover List.
However, with the FCC prohibiting all “foreign” routers, what precisely does this imply? To start, it indicates that any router produced outside of the U.S. that is not already being sold will not be introduced in the U.S. There exists a workaround, as items on the Cover List can receive what the FCC terms “Conditional Approval,” which essentially necessitates the company to be endorsed as not posing a national security threat.