The FCC has granted Netgear a conditional approval to import consumer routers, cable modems, and cable gateways into the US through October 1st, 2027. Netgear manufactures these devices in Asia and has announced no plans to move production stateside. The exemption exists despite the entire premise of the foreign router ban being about national security risks from overseas-made networking hardware.
Neither the FCC nor Netgear explain why the exemption was granted. The FCC's announcement references only a Pentagon determination that Netgear devices 'do not pose risks to U.S. national security,' with no supporting evidence, criteria, or methodology made public. That reasoning, or the absence of it, is the story.
The full piece at The Verge is worth reading because it tracks the internal contradiction at the heart of this policy: a ban justified by security concerns that can apparently be waived by an unexplained DoD determination, with a two-year runway attached. The question of who gets an exemption, and why, is now more important than the ban itself.
[READ ORIGINAL →]