TP-Link plans US router assembly at a Mississippi line after the import ban

The company signed a letter of intent with manufacturer Key Tronic. Pending approval from regulators, TP-Link says US assembly could begin at a Mississippi production line as soon as early 2027.

Once the line is running, Wi-Fi 8 routers are expected to be among the first TP-Link products Key Tronic assembles. TP-Link calls the deal part of a "long-term effort to accelerate US investment in high-tech manufacturing and job creation."

A letter of intent is a first step, not a finished contract. The date is a target, and it depends on a decision that has not been made yet.

In March, the Federal Communications Commission designated all consumer routers made outside the US as a security risk and banned imports of new ones. Retailers were still allowed to sell units already on their shelves.

The FCC said companies could apply for a waiver, but only if they planned to move at least some manufacturing to the US. Several companies have received waivers, according to Engadget. TP-Link is not one of them.

The big picture: the ban is about new models, not routers already in homes. Broadband Breakfast reports that the FCC, together with the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security, has been granting temporary waivers, including to Asus and Netgear.

The assembly deal sits next to a bigger promise. In a filing posted on October 14, TP-Link told federal regulators it plans to spend nearly $1 billion on US-based manufacturing facilities and research and development, Broadband Breakfast reports.

The company said that would let it start making next-generation Wi-Fi 8 routers in the US as soon as next year. The plan is contingent on approval of its request to import new router models.

Xenospectrum, which read the letter dated October 13, describes the plan as phased:

• Step one: install equipment at an existing US factory.
• Step two: eventually build a new, highly automated facility.
• Jobs: several hundred jobs in R&D, manufacturing and construction over four years.
• Base today: headquarters in Irvine, California, and more than 700 US employees.

Xenospectrum also notes that the public letter does not give a factory location, capacity or cost breakdown. The roughly $1 billion is described as an investment in US-based R&D and manufacturing capacity, not a fixed budget for one plant.

TP-Link's petition asks for conditional approval for two upcoming Wi-Fi 8 routers, the Archer 8 Ultra and the Deco 8 Ultra, HotHardware reports. The company has said it plans to launch two Wi-Fi 8 models worldwide this year.

Because of the US restrictions, TP-Link left the American market out of its initial regional preorder for the Archer 8 Ultra, according to HotHardware.

TP-Link also said the devices would run software and firmware developed, written and maintained on American soil by its US engineering team.

In real life if you were planning to buy a Wi-Fi 8 router from TP-Link in 2027, this decides whether it can legally reach US stores at all.

No. TP-Link's corporate affairs officer, Steve Kovsky, told PC Mag that many components "are just not available from a domestic source, and this is not a TP-Link issue."

He called it a problem for all manufacturers trying to bring production home. Assembly in Mississippi would change where the final product comes together, not where every chip and capacitor starts.

The catch: Xenospectrum points out that the FCC's rules look at more than the final assembly address. The March determination counts design and development as production too, and the guidance asks for the country of origin of components and the identity of whoever maintains the software.

TP-Link's request is not moving through a quiet process. HotHardware reports that a coalition of 21 state attorneys general asked the FCC, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to block its exemption attempt.

Citing trade data, the coalition argued that 99.5% of the components used at TP-Link's Vietnam facility are imported from China. Broadband Breakfast adds that attorneys general from Florida, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska each sued the company last week, alleging it misled consumers about its ties to China.

TP-Link has denied the allegations. Broadband Breakfast quotes Kovsky saying the attorneys general's letter "appears aimed primarily at encouraging federal officials to apply a heightened standard" that would be "unattainable to TP-Link or any other router manufacturer in the world."

TP-Link also says its US customer data is encrypted and hosted on Amazon Web Services infrastructure in Virginia, under third-party auditing, HotHardware reports.

Broadband Breakfast reports that TP-Link told the FCC it held 20% of the total router market in April. A former National Security Agency official told Congress last year that the company accounted for more than 60% of the consumer market.

The company is legally TP-Link Systems, spun off from the Chinese firm TP-Link Technologies in 2024, according to the same report. The Orange County Business Journal notes that the US company says the two have entirely different ownership, management and operations.

Those numbers explain the stakes. TP-Link routers consistently rank among Amazon's top sellers, the Business Journal reports.

AppleInsider reported in April that Netgear's approval covers all its Nighthawk and Orbi consumer routers, as well as cable gateways and cable modems, and runs until October 1, 2027. Adtran was the only other company on the list at that point.

Those applications asked for a lot. AppleInsider says the guidelines request a detailed bill of materials, the country of origin for components, who owns the intellectual property, and a "detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States."

Dell'Oro Group vice president Jeff Heynan said soon after the ban that it was "almost impossible that these companies would even consider onshoring manufacturing," because input costs are significantly higher in the US than in Southeast Asia, Broadband Breakfast reports.

Why it matters: TP-Link's Key Tronic deal is its answer to the onshoring plan the guidance asks for. Whether the FCC sees it as enough is the open question.

The FCC has not ruled on TP-Link's request. Neither the date for a decision nor the outcome is known.

If conditional approval comes, TP-Link's assembly plan could move ahead, starting with the line in Mississippi. If it does not, the plan stays on paper.

Watch for three things:

• The FCC decision on TP-Link's conditional approval request.
• Details of the Key Tronic deal, since the letter of intent is not yet a final agreement.
• The legal fights, as the state lawsuits continue alongside the FCC review.

• Today's routers are unaffected. Routers you already own keep working, and stores can sell units they already stock.
• New TP-Link models may be late in the US. The Wi-Fi 8 Archer 8 Ultra and Deco 8 Ultra depend on the FCC decision.
• Made in the US may still mean imported parts. Even if assembly moves, many components will come from abroad.
• Check the date. Early 2027 is a target, not a promise.