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Why does the FCC hate Minions routers?

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Why does the FCC hate Minions routers?

The viral Minions-shaped routers are caught by the same ban as TP-Link.

Seen a Wi-Fi router in the form of a Minion in your feed lately? It isn't AI; it's a real product from the South Korean networking company Davolink. Kevin, the taller of its two Minions routers, went viral after an X post last month called it one of the best Wi-Fi 6E routers money can buy. The post drew millions of impressions and Amazon's stock, priced at $62.99, was gone by the next day.

Unfortunately for Minions fans, the FCC treats the router version of Kevin and Bob like every other overseas consumer router. Since March, the agency has banned all new foreign-made network routers from getting the authorization they need to go on sale in the US, unless the manufacturer has an exemption. ASUS, Eero and Netgear all have exemptions, but Davolink isn't. So, while the two existing Minions routers stay legal to sell, we're not going to be seeing a Wi-Fi 7 Minion stateside anytime soon, and firmware updates for the duo are only guaranteed through the end of 2028.

Davolink first showed the routers at CES back in January 2023, under an exclusive design agreement with Universal and put them on sale in South Korea that summer. 5 Gbps WAN port, one gigabit LAN port, WPA3 security and mesh support. 4 Gbps each on 5 GHz and 6 GHz. 77 Gbps.



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