Will TP-Link really make routers in the US? Here’s what it told us

TP-Link, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer Wi-Fi routers, is in a precarious position in the US. The company just launched its first Wi-Fi 8 routers, but can’t bring them here because of President Donald Trump’s foreign router ban. Even though competitors Netgear and Asus make their routers in Asia, they’ve mysteriously obtained blanket waivers for all their new gear; perhaps because of alleged ties to China, TP-Link hasn’t managed to get such a waiver yet.

But TP-Link is willing to do something those companies weren’t — to invest nearly $1 billion to make routers in the United States, creating “hundreds of high-paying research and development, manufacturing, and construction jobs for American workers over the next four years,” according to a letter TP-Link sent to the FCC.

This week, it announced a letter of intent with US contract manufacturer Key Tronic to begin “domestic assembly” of its Wi-Fi 8 routers in Corinth, Mississippi. It could begin producing routers “as early as next year.”

Intriguingly, this might not just be slapping boards into a plastic box.

“If you look at what we do with the products in Vietnam, you’ve got raw components coming in and you’ve got completed, tested, shrink-wrapped products coming out,” TP-Link corporate affairs officer Steve Kovsky tells The Verge. “You’ve got surface-mount technology, many layers of testing quality control, we’re doing plastic injection molding, and as far as I know that is what we intend to do in Mississippi.”

But how likely is that “letter of intent” to turn into a true manufacturing plant? After talking to Kovsky, it sounds like the stars might need to align.

A deal with the Federal Communications Commission. Kovksy confirms the offer hinges on the FCC granting that router ban waiver — formally known as “conditional approval” — before it can proceed.

Kovsky wouldn’t tell me how long ago TP-Link applied for that waiver, but it sounds like the FCC hasn’t yet given the company any idea whether it’ll be approved. TP-Link had to provide lots of info about the company’s structure, ownership, and supply chain, but Kovksy confirms the FCC hasn’t asked any follow-up questions about other topics, and he says the FCC doesn’t exactly tell companies when it denies conditional approval.

“We’re looking at offering total transparency to these agencies, and we’re open to negotiations,” he says. “Nothing is written in stone.”

“I have asked that question myself,” Kovsky tells The Verge. The short answer is components. Even though TP-Link buys its chipsets from US companies like Qualcomm and Broadcom, those companies don’t actually produce those chips in the US. “Do they count as US product?” Kovsky rhetorically asks.

“It’s not a lock, and we would rather have [the waiver],” he says.

Five states have now sued over TP-Link’s alleged ties to China, and many more are directly asking the FCC not to grant a waiver, claiming the company dominates the consumer router market, that it’s a Chinese company posing as a US one, that the routers have brought serious security vulnerabilities into US homes, and more.

Kovksy suggests it’s all based on misinformation, even the company’s market share: “It’s about 9 to 10 percent, which is like top three. It’s a good number, but we do not have an overwhelming share of the US market.” TP-Link’s website clarifies that it has 10 percent market share when you count all the routers that internet providers put into people’s homes.

“We do not sell customer data or share it with any government ever. We never will. We do not allow backdoors in our products. We are not susceptible to malware or vulnerabilities to an extent that’s greater than any other manufacturer in this category to my knowledge,” Kovsky says.

It’s certainly true that Netgear routers got a blanket waiver despite being similarly implicated in some security scandals and Chinese hacks. I’ll say it once more: The router ban isn’t about security.

TP-Link is not willing to commit to that yet. “I don’t think that’s entirely determined,” Kovksy says. “Some of that is going to be: What are the FCC and the administration really trying to achieve?”

The administration already has a stated goal, though: It wants Made-in-USA products where at least 65 percent of their components are also made here. Kovsky says that TP-Link would be “happy to comply with that, to the extent that it can continue to produce products that meet its criteria for quality and affordability.”

“That is going to be challenging, certainly in the short term, [because] those components for the most part just are not produced in the US,” Kovsky says.

He says TP-Link believes components will become more available and affordable if the US pushes other manufacturers to invest, but the waiver isn’t the only factor in its decision.

“I think those are probably going to be business decisions that the CEO will ultimately have to make,” Kovksy begins. “Well, I hope he doesn’t have to make those decisions, frankly, that everything falls in line. He is very committed to making this investment,” he says.

Notably, TP-Link would not confirm Kovsky’s suggestion that it might completely manufacture routers in the US and only source the raw components. I told the company that if I could say TP-Link was committed to anything other than “final assembly,” it’d be well worth sharing with readers.

“At this stage, TP-Link is not sharing specific job numbers or detailed technical details of the assembly process beyond what’s in today’s press release,” third-party spokesperson Ricca Silverio told me.

I don’t think this is Foxconn in Wisconsin all over again because TP-Link probably won’t get its conditional approval, let alone invest in empty buildings. Foreign gadget bans from President Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr seem explicitly designed to target companies China hawks claim to be worried about, like DJI or Unitree, while letting favored companies through. But the hawks, including a coalition of congresspeople led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), seem to hate TP-Link, too.