The US is considering a ban on TP-Link router-should you worry?

TP-Link is one of the most Popular router Manufacturers in the United States, but the company is facing a potential ban on security concerns about its relationship with China. December Report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that US departments for trade, defense and justice are investigating TP-Link, although no evidence has yet emerged of deliberate misconduct.

“We are an American company,” Jeff Barney, President of TP-Link, told Wired: “We have no connection with the TP-Link Tech that focuses on continental China and can prove our individual.”

The investigation was triggered by A letter from John Molelear, a Republican for Michigan, and Raja Krishnahorti, a democrat from Illinois. Both are in the Committee for the election of the Chamber of Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. They have outlined fears that Chinese hacker sponsored may be able to more easily compromise TP-Link routers from other brands and thus penetrate US systems, and that TP-Link is the subject of Chinese legislation which It means that it can be forced to transmit our sensitive information from Chinese intelligence officials.

Photo: Simon Hill

TP-Link was founded in China in 1996 by two brothers, and TP-Link USA was created in 2008. Only in 2022 did the Chinese and American wings began to split. The process of moving 170 subsidiaries and all related property outside Hong Kong and in the United States was delayed by the pandemic, Barney says, but it was released and restructured until 2024.

TP-Link now has a power plant in California and Singapore and produces in Vietnam. He examines, designs, develops and produces everything but chipsets, according to Barney. “Our subjects in China are managed directly by us, our employees, significant by us, provided by us, in our own facilities.” He also says that TP-Link has shared documentation with investigators and that his factory in Vietnam has been audited by retail partners in the US such as Walmart, Best Buy and Costco.

“Everyone has a relationship in China,” Barney says. He claims the US rival Netgear uses Chinese ODM (original devices manufacturers) to build its products and even Apple relies on Production in ChinaS Netgear says its routers are manufactured in Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand, not China.

The concerns of competition

Thehe WSJ report suggests that TP-Link has a leading 64.9 percent share of MarketBut TP-Link disputes this. The company claims that its share has been moving about 20 percent in the last few years, but has jumped up to 36.5 percent share of a unit and share of 30.7 percent in dollars in 2024, but even the lower TP rating -Link shows a company in the ascending. This domination is guided by aggressively low prices and a relatively early introduction of Wi-Fi 7 Routers perceived by some as agreed efforts to flood the US market.

“Technology should not be excessive,” Barney says. “We are trying to democratize these products.”

However, the wide product range raises questions, with many wondering how TP-Link can win from routers sold at such low prices compared to competition. Former CNET Dong Ngo reviewer examines this point On the Router Review Website, Dong knows.