Re: FCC issues new rules about foreign made routers

Sixteen years ago, I was asked to attend a meeting at Verizon regarding the
IPv6 plan, whether the routers were manufactured in China, and what is your
consumer security look like. I was informed that they were working on IPv6,
they are secure and that all consumer routers were produced in the US..

Fast forward to March 10, 2026, when I began researching the topic. Here
the my results.

*The main OEMs Verizon used for consumer routers/gateways were:*


   -

   *Actiontec* — U.S. company; at least some Verizon MI424WR units were *made
   in China*.
   -

   *Westell* — U.S. company; at least some Verizon VersaLink 7500 units
   were *made in China*.
   -

   *D-Link* — Taiwan company; production country *not firmly verified *here
   for Verizon-labeled units.
   -

   *Linksys* — U.S. company at the time Verizon used the BEFW11S4;
   production country *not firmly verified here*.
   -

   *Arcadyan* — Taiwan company; verified as OEM/grantee for Verizon’s
   *G3100*, and likely associated with *CR1000B* and *ARC-XCI55AX*.
   -

   *Wistron NeWeb (WNC)* — Taiwan company; associated with Verizon’s
   *CR1000A*, *ASK-NCQ1338*, and likely *WNC-CR200A*.

*What I can say confidently about their production location*

*Clearly verified as produced in China*


   -

   Actiontec *MI424WR Rev. F*
   -

   Actiontec *MI424WR Rev. I*
   -

   Westell *VersaLink 7500*

*OEM company is verified, but factory country is not yet firm from the
sources I checked was one year ago.*


   -

   Arcadyan-made Verizon *G3100*
   -

   WNC-made Verizon *CR1000A*
   -

   Arcadyan-associated *CR1000B*
   -

   WNC-made / WNC-associated Verizon 5G gateways
   -

   D-Link and Linksys older Verizon consumer units

*Best initial conclusion*

For Verizon consumer routers from the 2000s through today, the OEM pattern
is:


   -

   *Older DSL / early broadband / early FiOS:* mostly *Actiontec, Westell,
   D-Link, Linksys*.
   -

   *Modern FiOS / 5G Home:* mostly *Arcadyan* and *Wistron NeWeb*,
both *Taiwan-based
   OEMs*.


*Today Update:  *From the models we discussed, the ones I can *confidently
tie to physical assembly in China* are:


   -

   *Verizon G3100* — third-party hardware databases identify the OEM as
   Arcadyan and list the *country of manufacture as China*.
   -

   *Verizon D-Link VDI/DI-624 generation* — multiple hardware-db entries
   for DI-624 revisions list *country of manufacture as China*. That
   supports the Verizon-era D-Link family being physically assembled in China,
   though not every single revision is proven by the same source.
   -

   *Verizon Linksys BEFW11S4 family* — at least the *BEFW11S4 v4 (r2,
   China)* is explicitly listed as *country of manufacture: China*. Earlier
   revisions were not all China-built; for example, v3.0 is listed as Taiwan.



The ones I *would not label as China-assembled based on what I could verify*
are:


   -

   *CR1000A* — FCC documents identify *Wistron NeWeb (Taiwan)* as
   applicant/manufacturer, and third-party hardware databases list the *country
   of manufacture as Vietnam*, not China.
   -

   *CR1000B* — FCC documents identify *Arcadyan (Taiwan)* as applicant, but
   I did *not* find a solid primary source proving China assembly for this
   exact Verizon model. A third-party hardware database result suggests
   *ROC/Taiwan*, not China.


*OEM/Production/Manufacture Update*From the models we discussed, the ones I
can *confidently tie to physical assembly in China* are:


   -

   *Verizon G3100* — third-party hardware databases identify the OEM as
   Arcadyan and list the *country of manufacture as China*.
   -

   *Verizon D-Link VDI/DI-624 generation* — multiple hardware-db entries
   for DI-624 revisions list *country of manufacture as China*. That
   supports the Verizon-era D-Link family being physically assembled in China,
   though not every single revision is proven by the same source.
   -

   *Verizon Linksys BEFW11S4 family* — at least the *BEFW11S4 v4 (r2,
   China)* is explicitly listed as *country of manufacture: China*. Earlier
   revisions were not all China-built; for example, v3.0 is listed as Taiwan.



The ones I *would not label as China-assembled based on what I could verify*
are:


   -

   *CR1000A* — FCC documents identify *Wistron NeWeb (Taiwan)* as
   applicant/manufacturer, and third-party hardware databases list the *country
   of manufacture as Vietnam*, not China.
   -

   *CR1000B* — FCC documents identify *Arcadyan (Taiwan)* as applicant, but
   I did *not* find a solid primary source proving China assembly for this
   exact Verizon model. A third-party hardware database result suggests
   *ROC/Taiwan*, not China.

*Model/family*

*Physically assembled in China?*

*What I could verify*

Verizon *G3100*

*Yes*

China listed in hardware databases.

Verizon *CR1000A*

*No evidence of China; likely Vietnam*

FCC shows WNC Taiwan; hardware-db lists Vietnam.

Verizon *CR1000B*

*Not verified as China*

FCC shows Arcadyan Taiwan; no strong China-assembly proof found.

Verizon *D-Link VDI/DI-624 era*

*Yes, at least some revisions*

Several DI-624 revisions list China.

Verizon *Linksys BEFW11S4 era*

*Yes, at least some revisions*

v4 (r2, China) explicitly lists China; older revs varied.

The main caveat is that the *manufacturing country can vary by hardware
revision*, even within the same retail model family. That is especially
clear with the Linksys BEFW11S4 line, where one revision is from Taiwan and
another is explicitly from China.


*Now the question...*

Will the US carriers require all their consumers to change routers, who
will bear the cost and what about timeline?


Just a thought...

Joe Klein

On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 6:43 AM Saku Ytti via NANOG <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On Wed, 25 Mar 2026 at 11:51, Mukund Sivaraman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > What relation does speaking in Mandarin have with injecting code for
> > money?
>
> None. Hence 'Most people'.
>
> Point being, the seat doesn't matter, Chinese nationals sitting in
> China or Silicon Valley does not have security implications.
>
> --
>   ++ytti
> _______________________________________________
> NANOG mailing list
>
> https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/SO6ROA5QQDULY4TOB3ESFAHDD5WBTDUW/
>
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