What the FCC router ban means for FOSS

by Denver Gingerich on April 2, 2026

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission in the United States (the FCC) banned the sale of all new models of home routers not made in the U.S., which is ... all of them. The stated reason for this is that routers "pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the U.S. or the safety and security of U.S. persons." A router manufacturer can apply for a "Conditional Approval" exemption to try and convince U.S. government bodies that their router should be allowed into the U.S., but this requires "A detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States" and "A description of committed and planned capital expenditures, financing, or other investments dedicated to U.S.-based manufacturing and assembly", and "an update on the status of their onshoring plan once a quarter" among other impractical asks. Devices built in the U.S. generally cost at least twice as much as devices built in Asia (see the Librem 5 (USA) for example) because U.S. manufacturing facilities are not ready with the scale and efficiency required to enable competitive pricing. The reason we chose to build the OpenWrt One in Asia is that it makes sure the device is as feasible as possible for people around the world to purchase. We expect it will take decades before the U.S. is ready to produce competitively-priced devices - user fr...

And, in case you were hoping to buy an OpenWrt One, don't worry: the One has already received FCC approval so there is no change to its availability in the U.S. Naturally, we are concerned about the effect this has on any new hardware that SFC might develop, but this decision by the FCC does not create any near-term problems for us, or for FOSS generally.

We do applaud the FCC for recognizing how important home routers are to people's security. While the rulemaking is misguided, it's absolutely correct that the proprietary router manufacturers be accountable in relation to the hardware and software that individuals bring into their homes and their lives. We believe that manufacturers of routers that are primarily FOSS are in a much better position to evaluate the security of their devices, and so we analyzed the rulemaking taking into specific account its software aspects.

While the FCC decision focuses mainly on hardware, there are also some requirements for software. In particular, the FCC has hinted that it may restrict updates to existing hardware, in particular that existing routers "may continue to receive software and firmware updates that mitigate harm to U.S. consumers at least until March 1, 2027".

Since software updates to already-FCC-approved devices do not require a new FCC approval, it appears the FCC is trying to move beyond its usual authorization procedures to restrict what manufacturers are allowed to push to existing routers. However, the FCC notably does not restrict software changes made by owners of routers in the U.S. In particular, there is no indication that updates people make to their own routers, using software they have sourced themselves, would run afoul of any past or present FCC rule.

As a result, we do not believe that this new FCC decision affects whether and how people can run OpenWrt or other user-selected firmware updates on routers they have already purchased. Not only is this an important right in relation to our ownership and control of our own devices, it also ensures that people can keep their routers secure for far longer than the manufacturer may choose to provide security updates, by allowing them to install up-to-date community software that supports routers for 10, 15, or even more years after their initial release date, as OpenWrt does for many devices.

We have reached out to the FCC for clarity on this topic, and look forward to updating this post with their reply.

[[permalink]](https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2026/apr/02/fcc-router-ban/)

Tags: conservancy, GPL, security, licensing, software freedom for everyone, inclusion