Kamal Ghorui
If you bought a foreign-made drone or router and quietly panicked when the government started banning them, here’s some relief. The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology published a formal notice on May 8 extending the software update window for already-owned devices to January 1, 2029—nearly two years longer than originally planned.The previous deadlines were tight: drones faced a cutoff of January 1, 2027, while routers were set to lose update access by March 1, 2027. Both deadlines are now off the table.
Your existing drones and routers won’t stop working dark anytime soon
The notice is clear that this only covers devices already authorized for sale before they landed on the FCC’s “Covered List.” New foreign-made models are still banned unless manufacturers jump through a conditional approval process with the Department of Defense or Homeland Security. So far, only Netgear and Amazon’s Eero have cleared that bar for routers.The update extension covers everything from security patches to compatibility fixes for new operating systems. The FCC also quietly expanded the waiver to include Class II permissive changes—a broader category of software modifications that wasn’t covered before. Essentially, manufacturers now have more room to push meaningful updates, not just minor tweaks.
Why the government banned foreign routers and drones in the first place
The underlying concern is real. About 60% of American routers are made in China, and more than 80% of US-operated drones were designed and built there. Officials have pointed to threats like the Volt Typhoon cyberattack campaign, which used compromised routers to burrow into American infrastructure. Drones have also been tied to corporate espionage since at least 2022.The Consumer Technology Association had pushed hard for exactly this kind of extension, arguing in a letter to the FCC that cutting off updates would leave millions of consumers with increasingly vulnerable hardware—which is the opposite of what a security-focused ban is supposed to accomplish.The FCC acknowledged that argument and is now signaling it may make the waiver permanent through a future rulemaking process. For now, your TP-Link router and DJI drone can keep getting updates. Just don’t expect either company to launch a new model in the US anytime soon.
