Another big name gets the green light to keep selling foreign-made routers in the US

Even as the government tightens laws surrounding robots and routers made outside the US, some products should remain relatively straightforward to buy. ASUS routers are now among them.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted the Taiwanese company a conditional approval to continue selling foreign-made routers in the US.

For those unaware, companies can seek conditional approval from the FCC, provided they satisfy the commission’s requests. These include detailed supply chain disclosures, a complete ownership structure, and, most importantly, a detailed onshoring plan to bring manufacturing and assembly operations to the United States.

That’s exactly what ASUS did, and it gained its conditional approval on Wednesday, September 9. The temporary approval will remain valid until March 6, 2028, and it applies to the company’s RT Router Series, ROG GT Series, ROG Strix GS Series, TUF Gaming Series, ExpertWiFi Series, ZenWiFi Mesh Series, 5G MiFi Series, repeaters, and wireless access points.

Plus, current ASUS router owners don’t need to worry. If you already have a router plugged in, it’s not going to magically become obsolete. The FCC’s new rules only apply to new models being imported into the country. Routers that have previously been approved to be sold in the US aren’t affected by the new rules.

This comes soon after the company announced that the ROG Rapture GT-BN98, its first Wi-Fi 8 router, went on sale in Canada last week. ASUS is planning a wider global launch in October.

The FCC is granting more and more exemptions to its import bans

Alongside ASUS, a smaller Taiwanese player, Comtrend Corporation, also gained temporary approval.

Elsewhere, in the same window, Sweden-based Husqvarna received conditional approval to sell four models of foreign-made robot lawnmowers in the US. The company is now the first among those that make “Robotic Devices” to have received a conditional approval.

The three companies, and more specifically their approved devices, have been deemed to pose no risk to US national security, following similar determinations for several other companies earlier this year, including Netgear, Amazon (eero), SpaceX, and more. TP-Link is the notable holdout here, with the company still waiting for its conditional approval, despite highlighting that it is “investing hundreds of millions of dollars to bring manufacturing and research and development of its consumer routers to the US.”