ASUS just got something more valuable than a product launch: permission to keep selling routers in the United States at all.
On September 10, the US Federal Communications Commission granted ASUS conditional approval covering its entire consumer router lineup, good until March 2028. The approval matters because the FCC spent 2026 tightening scrutiny on foreign-made networking gear over national security concerns, and not every brand has cleared that bar. TP-Link, a major rival in the budget and mid-range router space, has not received the same approval and remains locked out of new US sales despite disputing the security concerns raised against it.
ASUS is framing its clearance as routine, calling it recognition of "supply chain resilience and logistics compliance" built over what it describes as a 35-year presence in the US market. That framing undersells what actually happened. The FCC's approval process required a specific determination that ASUS devices do not pose a national security risk, the same bar TP-Link has been unable to clear. Netgear and Amazon's Eero lineup have also received conditional approval, putting ASUS in a small group of networking brands the US government is currently comfortable letting sell freely.
The timing lines up with ASUS's push into WiFi 8. The company's press release ties this approval directly to "the transition to the WiFi 8 era," and ASUS already has its first WiFi 8 router, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro, on the market as of June. Uninterrupted FCC clearance means that lineup can keep expanding in the US without the shelf disruptions a rival like TP-Link is now facing.
For Philippine buyers, none of this changes which ASUS router shows up on local shelves. What it does confirm is which networking brands are winning the geopolitical fight over router security, and ASUS just moved further ahead of at least one major competitor in that fight.
