Are Peplink still allowed in the US?

The news today is the FCC is banning the sale of “nearly all foreign made consumer grade routers”. After reading the FCC announcement, I’m uncertain whether Peplink is still allowed or not. It doesn’t seem to be on the list, but it’s also not on the approved list, and I’m not sure if the list is exhaustive or not.

https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist

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Wow. I feel bad for Peplink’s legal team. Here is their hamhanded definition of a “router” (from this document):

Routers: For the purpose of this determination, the term “Routers” is defined by National Institute of Science and Technology’s Internal Report 8425A to include consumer-grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer. Routers forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between networked systems.

Brendan Carr at work. :zipper_mouth_face:

Read: FCC Bans New Foreign Routers: Security Move or Manufacturing Play?

From the linked article above:

“For enterprise and cellular router customers, equipment from Peplink, Cradlepoint, Digi, Teltonika, and similar vendors that already holds valid FCC equipment authorization is not affected by today’s action. Those devices can continue to be imported, deployed, and supported as before.”

Also anything which already has an FCC ID can still be sold, so just upcoming models affected.

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We accumulated and summarized a lot more on this topic at:

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Can anyone explain how the end of security updates will be enforced? Not quite sure how they do that. They note that all covered routers can only receive updates through March 1, 2027, unless they decide to extend them or they get a conditional waiver.

As an aside, I don’t see how banning updates increases security. Your average consumer is not going to go buy an “American made” router just to get security updates. One of the reasons I got a Peplink was because of the regular updates, unlike other consumer grade manufacturers that have a spotty record.

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To say the least, it’ll be self enforcement because device manufactures won’t want to upset the FCC while they’re trying to get new devices approved.

(I think if the FCC were as serious about national security problems as they claim to be, then they would be taking a much different approach, but I digress.)

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More info here:

Since Peplink focuses on enterprise routers, this FCC thing may not impact Peplink.