Asus escaped the US foreign-router ban and won't explain how it qualified

Asus can keep selling routers in the United States and is bringing its first Wi-Fi 8 hardware to US buyers — but the company is refusing to explain how it qualified for that permission, according to The Verge.

An exemption without an explanation

Earlier this year, the US moved to ban future sales of foreign-built consumer routers, a rule that covers practically every router on the market. Manufacturers could keep selling only if they persuaded the government they posed no national security threat and submitted a concrete, schedule-bound plan to start or expand manufacturing on US soil.

As of September 9th, Asus holds an exemption covering all of its future routers through March 2028, The Verge reports, timed to the arrival of its first early Wi-Fi 8 models. What is missing is any public sign that Asus plans to build anything in the United States.

Asked about this, Asus spokesperson JJ Guerrero pointed The Verge to a statement: "ASUS has submitted the required plan to the FCC and is working with trusted manufacturing partners to support our future networking product portfolio in the U.S." When reporters asked repeatedly whether that meant manufacturing inside the US, rather than products simply intended for the US market, Asus stopped responding. The Verge says it waited more than 12 days without clarification.

A security policy without security questions

According to The Verge, the FCC asks no security questions at all as part of the exemption process — the review is about where routers are made, not whether they are safe. The agency is also not testing individual products: Asus's exemption applies to every router it ships through March 2028.

That leaves the purpose of the policy unclear. The Trump administration handed Netgear a similar exemption in April, and The Verge notes both companies say they manufacture in countries the US treats as allies. Netgear additionally states that it no longer sources internet-connected components from Chinese manufacturers or entities owned or controlled by China. The FCC did not respond to The Verge's earlier request for comment, or to a fact-check request for this story.

The Verge also points out that very few consumer products are manufactured in the US for straightforward economic reasons, which would make domestic router production a heavy ask — and makes the absence of any stated Asus manufacturing plan more conspicuous.

Exemptions as marketing

Both companies are now using their exemptions as selling points. Netgear emailed existing customers in April to tell them it is a "trusted consumer router company." Asus says it passed a "rigorous cybersecurity review" and now carries the labels "Trusted Networking Equipment Brand" and "Trusted Consumer Router Vendor" — but The Verge found those designations only in Asus's own materials; searching for them turns up nothing from the federal government.

Why it matters

The ban covered effectively the entire consumer router market, so this exemption process determines which hardware US customers can buy. That process is currently opaque: the criteria are not explained, the security screening the policy was framed around does not appear to be part of it, and Asus will not say what it actually promised. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi 8 hardware reaches shelves carrying badges that sound official but trace back to the vendor itself, and the FCC — the agency running the program — is not answering questions about how any of it works. Any other foreign-built router maker has to pass through the same unexplained gate.