Asus routers can now be sold in the US — but it's bad news for TP-Link

Asus is the latest company to get sales approval across its consumer routers Netgear got a head start with much earlier approval granted TP-Link is still waiting for Conditional Approval While many consumer routers have been blocked from receiving FCC approval since March due to them being produced

<![CDATA[ <article> <ul><li><strong>Asus is the latest company to get sales approval across its consumer routers</strong></li><li><strong>Netgear got a head start with much earlier approval granted</strong></li><li><strong>TP-Link is still waiting for Conditional Approval</strong></li></ul><p>While many consumer routers have been blocked from receiving FCC approval since March due to them being produced outside of the US, Asus has finally secured regulatory clearance across a large number of its routers.</p><p>Virtually all of its consumer and small business networking range can now be sold again in the US, including the RT series, its gaming routers, the ZenWiFi mesh systems, 5G MiFi devices and more.</p><p>But it's not without its limitations – the FCC has essentially given Asus an 18-month window to see its products in the US, spanning September 9, 2026 through March 6, 2028.</p><h2 id="fcc-issues-new-permits-for-router-sales">FCC issues new permits for router sales</h2><p>In a strike of good luck for Asus, the regulatory clearance also means that Asus should be able to launch its upcoming Wi-Fi 8 hardware.</p><p>And Asus isn't alone in gaining approval – Netgear, Amazon's Eero, Adtran, Nokia, Calix, Zyxel and others also have permission to sell their routers within the US, with Netgear becoming one of the first big brands to get clearance back in April, giving it a head start over Asus.</p><p>However, TP-Link is still waiting for approval and, subsequently, cannot sell new routers in the US at the moment. Crucially, existing products that have already received FCC approval can still be sold, but TP-Link is currently banned from introducing new products for the US market.</p><p>New and upcoming Wi-Fi 8 models, for example, are out of the question, putting it at a competitive disadvantage to rival companies.</p><p>In order to get Conditional Approval, TP-Link would need to prove things like corporate ownership, board members, IP ownership, router designs, firmware updates and more.</p><p>But this isn't TP-Link's first run-in with the US government. In late 2024 and 2025, US authorities opened an investigation into its historic links with China. Texas even <a href="https://www.techradar.com/pro/texas-sues-tp-link-over-suspected-china-links-and-concern-for-security-vulnerabilities">sued</a> the company in early 2026 on similar grounds.</p><p>TP-Link has contested these allegations by asserting that the California-headquartered TP-Link Systems is a separate entity to China's TP-Link Technologies, and that all US-bound networking equipment has been manufactured in Vietnam since 2018.</p><p>"TP-Link stands behind the security, quality, and performance of its networking products and fully complies with all US regulatory requirements," the company <a href="https://www.tp-link.com/us/press/news/22297" target="_blank">wrote</a> in April 2026.</p><figure class="van-image-figure pull-right inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:676px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:31.51%;"><img id="diM9tpwF2Lz85R8q85CT78" name="tr-g_news" alt="Google logo on a black background next to text reading 'Click to follow TechRadar'" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/diM9tpwF2Lz85R8q85CT78.jpg" mos="" align="right" fullscreen="" width="676" height="213" attribution="" endorsement="" class="pull-rightinline"></p></div></div></figure> </article> ]]>