TP-Link signs deal to produce Wi-Fi 8 routers in US amid FCC ban

The impact of the ban on foreign-made routers that the FCC implemented in March is still causing reverberations. While some router manufacturers have received exemptions, one of the largest, TP-Link is not among them. Now the company looks like it might have found a way to keep selling routers in the United States.

TP-Link has announced a partnership with tech manufacturer Key Tronic Corporation to assemble its products in the United States, beginning with production of its Wi-Fi 8 routers in Mississippi (via PCMag). Production will begin “as early as next year.”

The manufacturer positions the move as “part of TP-Link’s long-term effort to accelerate U.S. investment in high-tech manufacturing and job creation.” A more cynical read could be that TP-Link signed the deal to avoid the consequences of the ban, but an interview that TP-Link corporate affairs officer Steve Kovsky gave to PCMag today suggests that the deal does not fully resolve the issue.

There are lingering questions regarding what constitutes “foreign-made” when it comes to components of routers and TP-Link sources those outside of the United States. “There are no published guidelines that say, ‘Well, it could be 25% US, or it could be 15% US,’” Kovsky said to PCMag. “Or what about, we buy our chipsets for these products from Qualcomm and Broadcom. Is that a US product?”

And then there are the issues that relate to TP-Link and its issues with the US government at a federal and state level. While TP-Link Systems is based in Irvine, California, it was spun off in 2024 from TP-Link Technologies, a China-based company, and also has some of its assets in China. As with most electronics manufacturers, TP-Link makes its products outside of the United States, subjecting it to the FCC ban, but the scrutiny it has faced goes farther back.

TP-Link has come under fire from the US government for national security concerns a few times in the past, starting in 2024 when it was investigated for providing access to US infrastructure to China-backed hackers. Earlier this month, Florida, Iowa, Montana, and Nebraska filed a joint lawsuit against TP-Link, alleging that it lied to consumers about its connections to China and the risk that its routers posed to potential attacks by China-based hackers. This joins a similar, separate lawsuit by Texas.

For a longer-term solution, TP-Link continues to pursue a temporary exemption to the foreign-made router ban.