// ARS TECHNICA — MOBILE & WEB
TP-Link tries to appease Trump admin with pledge to assemble routers in US
TP-Link can’t sell latest routers in US despite rivals getting FCC approvals.
TP-Link yesterday announced plans to assemble Wi-Fi routers in the US, as the company attempts to get the Trump administration’s approval to sell its newest routers to American consumers.
The timing is uncertain, as TP-Link’s press release said it expects US-based assembly to begin “as early as” 2027. TP-Link’s application to sell new routers in the US could be rejected by the Trump administration or remain pending long enough to push the US-based assembly to 2028.
“Pending US regulatory approval, TP-Link expects domestic assembly of its groundbreaking Wi-Fi 8 home networking product line to begin as early as next year,” the company said. TP-Link said it signed a Letter of Intent with US company Keytronic, which agreed “to become a primary domestic manufacturing partner for TP-Link, supporting assembly of the company’s advanced networking portfolio in Corinth, Mississippi.”
TP-Link can’t sell its Wi-Fi 8 routers in the US because of the Federal Communications Commission ban on consumer-grade routers produced wholly or partly in other countries. Previous TP-Link routers that were already approved for import and sale are still available.
The FCC has given exemptions to a number of prominent router makers, but TP-Link’s history as a Chinese company is making it difficult to obtain FCC clearance. Founded in China in 1996, TP-Link moved its headquarters to California in October 2024. It says that “TP-Link Systems devices sold in the US are manufactured in Vietnam and TP-Link Systems is an independent, US company that is not owned or controlled by any foreign government.”
While TP-Link assembles routers in Vietnam, most of the components are reportedly imported from China. TP-Link’s plan to assemble routers in the US will still require it to import components, but the company hopes investment in the US will help it gain the Trump administration’s favor.
While the FCC is urging router makers to move more of their operations to the US, a TP-Link official said the government has provided no clear guidance on how much US manufacturing is enough to obtain an exemption from the foreign router ban.
“There are no published guidelines that say, ‘Well, it could be 25 percent US, or it could be 15 percent US,'” TP-Link corporate affairs officer Steve Kovsky told PCMag. Kovsky said that many components “are just not available from a domestic source, and this is not a TP-Link issue. This is an issue for all manufacturers that are trying to onshore manufacturing.”
In a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and the agency’s commissioners last week, Kovsky said TP-Link is proposing “a nearly $1 billion investment in America that would result in equipping existing US factories, and ultimately building new, highly automated manufacturing facilities, to start assembling next-generation Wi-Fi 8 routers in the United States as soon as next year, creating hundreds of new jobs.”