(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
The FCC's ban on foreign-made Wi-Fi routers is expected to affect all manufacturers since electronics production has long been based in Asia, and a new report using Speedtest.net data identifies which brands will be hit the hardest based on their popularity in the US.
Speedtest.net’s parent, Ookla, examined user-submitted data from January 2025 to last month and has published a list of the top 10 Wi-Fi router vendors for the US.
We thought TP-Link, a Chinese-affiliated brand, might be number one, especially since US lawmakers have long been concerned that the company’s Wi-Fi products pose a potential spying threat. Last year, a group of Republican lawmakers even accused TP-Link of using low “predatory” prices to capture nearly a 60% share of the market.
However, according to Ookla, TP-Link comes in second, with its Wi-Fi routers appearing in only 9.9% of speed test samples. Instead, routers from Amazon-owned Eero lead the pack, although narrowly, with a 10% share. In third is US-based Netgear at 9.6%.
(Credit: Ookla)The fourth-largest vendor in the data is Arcadyan, a Taiwanese brand from contract PC manufacturer Compal, which is also the top Wi-Fi router supplier for Verizon, Ookla notes. In fifth is another Taiwanese brand, Askey, which is owned by Asus and supplies Wi-Fi routers to Charter, another popular US ISP.
Ookla also breaks down the user test samples by Wi-Fi generation, offering a glimpse of how many Americans are stuck on older wireless standards and could use an upgrade. A large portion continues to rely on Wi-Fi 5, which arrived in 2013, and Wi-Fi 4, which came in 2009.
(Credit: Ookla)“It’s clear that some of these existing gadgets—currently deployed in networks across the US—will soon need to be replaced in order to take advantage of newer Wi-Fi technologies,” Ookla analyst Mike Dano says in the report. “Indeed, roughly 28% of all Speedtest samples in the US ran over Wi-Fi 5, and around 7% used Wi-Fi 4 or older.”
The FCC’s move to ban foreign-made Wi-Fi routers for consumers has naturally sparked concerns that it’ll freeze the market. The WiFi NOW industry group has warned that moving router production to the US will take years and require “massive investments,” which could lead to increased costs that’ll be passed on to consumers.
The White House describes the ban as a necessary precaution against foreign-made routers that could introduce “supply chain vulnerabilities” that hackers could exploit. However, WiFi NOW's CEO Claus Hetting wrote: "Wi-Fi innovation and evolution will be severely hampered. It is very hard to see how this will benefit anyone at all. It is a very, very high price to pay for hypothetical security risks."
To prevent harming consumers, the FCC’s order steers clear of banning any Wi-Fi routers currently in use or sold in the US. The Trump administration will also allow vendors to apply for an exemption under the implied pretext that the company will eventually move manufacturing to the US. Whether that process favors US companies over foreign brands is a big question.
Still, as it stands, the FCC is only permitting software updates to flow to existing foreign-made Wi-Fi routers for consumers until March 1, 2027. It's a pretty ironic and alarming deadline, considering software updates keep routers safe from serious vulnerabilities.
The FCC has indicated it’ll eventually clarify the policy, which could lead to an extension of the deadline. In the meantime, legal experts have told PCMag they wouldn't be surprised if a vendor eventually challenges the ban in court.