- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 months, 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
All,
I struggled a bit with where to post this in our forums. Was it an announcement? Not really, it wasn’t anything we were announcing, that another local club or ARRL was announcing. Was it news? Well, kind of, but not really. Since we hadn’t had anything posted to the Digital Knowledge area in a while, and everything in this post is about digital knowledge, I decided to post it here. So, here we go.
On March 23 I read an X (formerly Twitter) post by Engadget (post link here) saying that FCC had issued a ban on all foreign-made network routers. I went for a read and sure enough, FCC did issue such a ban, saying “Update Follows Determination by Executive Branch Agencies that Consumer-Grade Routers Produced in Foreign Countries Threaten National Security” (FCC release here).
I have long thought it was crazy that so much of our critical infrastructure is made in China. Think about it for a moment. China is arguably our biggest external/nation-threat. I can cite all kinds of examples of initiatives they have taken that don’t have our best interest at heart. Name one consumer grade router made in the United States. You can’t because there aren’t any (Confirmed by Grok AI analysis here.). What about this question I asked Grok: Are there any commercial grade routers such as are used in the US by major industry, critical infrastructure or government, produced domestically? Grok’s answer was pretty painful. “Yes, but with significant limitations—truly domestic (US-manufactured) commercial-grade network routers exist only in niche segments, primarily specialized industrial/OT (operational technology) models rather than the high-volume, high-performance enterprise/core routers predominantly used by major industry, critical infrastructure operators, or government agencies.” More to my point, Grok went on with “Mainstream Commercial/Enterprise Routers (What Major Users Actually Deploy) Leading vendors whose routers are standard in US enterprise, data centers, service provider networks, critical infrastructure (e.g., utilities, transportation, energy), and government networks—including Cisco (Catalyst, ISR, ASR series), Juniper Networks (SRX, MX series), HPE/Aruba, Arista, and similar—do not manufacture their commercial-grade routers domestically.” That’s Grok’s emphasis, not mine. Got that? All of these super-important operations use routers that are at least partially, and in most cases entirely, designed and made outside of the US. The full Grok analysis can be found here.
So, as if it were not bad enough that we have all manner of threats from Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP), whether man made or from naturally occurring Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), we nearly 100% depend on network routers made by foreign countries, some which are hostile to us. Surely nobody can think that is smart.
The FCC action seems prudent to me. Their entire working document, including links, are available from here. We did not get here overnight and I don’t know exactly what timeline we might hope for, but I for one think domestic design and production needs to be on-shored lest we really set ourselves up for disaster.
While not specifically on point on “routers”, one element of their production is the chips they contain. Elon Musk has just announced a giant project he is launching called Terafab. Here is a Grok analysis of his announcement, with video and media links (here). I suggest you go take a look at it. Terafab is his answer to the fact that everything he is involved with requires chips and they cannot be procured in the numbers he needs so he is going to start making them himself. He’s clearly a smart guy, that seems like a smart idea and hopefully the FCC action will spur someone to do the same thing with routers.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
Also…after some consults today…
Under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, the FCC maintains a list of specific companies whose equipment is prohibited for use in U.S. telecom networks (especially federal funding contexts).
Key companies include:
Huawei
ZTE
Hytera Communications
Hikvision
Dahua TechnologyThere has been some confusion recently about a “ban on foreign-made routers.” To clarify, there is no blanket ban on all routers manufactured outside the United States.
What has actually happened is that federal regulators have restricted and prohibited equipment from a small number of specific companies identified as national security risks. These restrictions apply mainly to certain telecommunications infrastructure and federally funded networks, not to all consumer or privately used networking equipment.
Most networking devices used by individuals, businesses, and amateur radio operators remain legal and unaffected, even if they are manufactured overseas.
In short:
It’s not about where the equipment is made — it’s about which companies are involved and whether they are on restricted lists.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.