The NCTA is pressing the FCC for an expedited waiver to bypass its March ban on foreign-made routers. The cable lobby wants permission for suppliers to swap substrate materials and memory modules in previously certified devices, insisting these substitutions won't alter device functionality or replace US components with foreign ones amid shortages.

In March, the FCC added virtually all consumer routers manufactured partly outside the US to its Covered List, blocking new or modified models from import or domestic sale. The NCTA argues that supply chain shortages for semiconductor substrates and memory chips, worsened by booming AI demand, now threaten to halt production of routers that millions of broadband customers lease from their ISPs.

Regulators granted AT&T a similar one-year waiver last month, letting its suppliers substitute substrates and memory. Cable vendors face identical constraints, the NCTA contends. Before the Covered List expansion, router makers could make these memory swaps as routine Class I permissive changes without special approval, a flexibility that broadband equipment manufacturers have since lost.

Without relief, the NCTA warns that broadband providers could face abrupt disruptions serving large customer bases. Vendors can pursue conditional approvals requiring detailed onshoring plans and security reviews by the Department of Defense or Homeland Security, but the group says a temporary waiver is needed while suppliers navigate that lengthy bureaucratic process.