TP-Link, DJI and other foreign-made devices get FCC update waiver

If you’re a fan or user of TP-Link’s Archer series, Asus’s Wi-Fi offerings, Huawei’s 5G CPE models, or drones made by DJI, especially routers and drones manufactured overseas or in China, then you can breathe a bit easier, at least for now. The Federal Communications Commission has softened its banhammer and extended the deadline for software and firmware updates for millions of existing devices, including current-generation Wi-Fi 7 routers in America.

Instead of canceling support in early 2027 as planned, the agency’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) announced on Friday that previously manufactured “foreign-made” routers and drones will continue to receive important updates until January 1, 2029, including security patches for vulnerabilities and bug fixes to keep things running smoothly across networks.

A major player in the tech industry, the Consumer Technology Association, which pretty much runs CES, pleaded with the FCC to extend the software support timeline, and OET agreed on public safety grounds. 

The OET announced in a public statement, “OET finds that special circumstances warrant a deviation from the general rules and that the public interest would be better served by extending the waiver of the prohibitions on these Class I permissive changes in these circumstances.”

The agency further stated that “the continued limited duration of this waiver, which will also give the Commission an opportunity to reconsider rulemaking on this subject, also reduces potential harm to the public interest.”

The OET even expanded the waiver to cover slightly larger “Class II” changes, provided they serve the interests of consumer protection and safety.

The context for these critical restrictions is national security. The White House and the FCC added all foreign-made consumer routers and drones, especially those made in China, to the “Covered List” because they allegedly pose major risks to U.S. networks and infrastructure.

Following this decision, newer DJI drones and drones from other manufacturers have effectively been banned from being imported into the United States. Under special circumstances, a company might receive a short-term exemption to import new products, dubbed a conditional approval, from the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security.

Currently, only a few devices from companies like Netgear and Amazon have made the cut. Bigger players in the networking and drone space, like TP-Link and DJI, haven’t cleared this fairly high bar.

TP-Link is fighting to stay in the U.S.; it told the FCC that the company has invested “hundreds of millions of dollars to bring manufacturing and research and development of its consumer routers to the U.S., in alignment with the FCC’s policy goals.”

DJI, on the other hand, is challenging the rules in court and urging loyal customers and supporters across the country to file comments in favor of its products and their critical importance in the U.S., from everyday use to emergency services.