AT&T Secures Waiver After FCC's Router Ban Collides With Memory Shortage
The FCC has granted AT&T a one-year waiver allowing minor hardware changes to foreign-made Wi-Fi routers. This decision comes in response to ongoing global supply chain shortages affecting memory components. The waiver is intended to ensure that national security and public safety are not compromised while allowing AT&T's suppliers to adapt to material shortages.
- ▪The waiver lasts until May 15, 2027, for specific hardware changes to previously certified routers.
- ▪AT&T warned that global supply chain shortages could impact the availability of Wi-Fi routers despite the FCC's ban.
- ▪The FCC extended the software update cutoff for foreign-made routers to at least January 1, 2029.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
UPDATE 5/15: The FCC has granted AT&T a one-year waiver, permitting the carrier's suppliers to make minor hardware changes to already-approved foreign-made Wi-Fi routers. The waiver lasts "until May 15, 2027, for the limited purpose of AT&T’s suppliers making hardware Class I and Class II permissive changes to substitute substrate materials and memory modules in its previously certified routers of its suppliers," says the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology."This waiver does not undermine the national security and public safety purpose of the rule, given that, among other facts, the hardware changes will not improve performance or capability or alter the functionality of the previously-authorized device; will not be used to market the device as a distinct model; and will not…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at PCMag.
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