diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/network/aireos/aireos_command.py b/lib/ansible/modules/network/aireos/aireos_command.py
index 2c759c9c8c5..c06f6bf46c9 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/network/aireos/aireos_command.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/network/aireos/aireos_command.py
@@ -120,12 +120,13 @@ from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
 from ansible.module_utils.network.common.utils import ComplexList
 from ansible.module_utils.network.common.parsing import Conditional
 from ansible.module_utils.six import string_types
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_text
 
 
 def to_lines(stdout):
     for item in stdout:
         if isinstance(item, string_types):
-            item = str(item).split('\n')
+            item = to_text(item, errors='surrogate_then_replace').split('\n')
         yield item
 
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/network_cli.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/network_cli.py
index d5937f3a7e9..a189b8da08d 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/network_cli.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/network_cli.py
@@ -306,7 +306,6 @@ class Connection(NetworkConnectionBase):
 
     def __init__(self, play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs):
         super(Connection, self).__init__(play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs)
-
         self._ssh_shell = None
 
         self._matched_prompt = None
@@ -582,7 +581,7 @@ class Connection(NetworkConnectionBase):
             if sendonly:
                 return
             response = self.receive(command, prompt, answer, newline, prompt_retry_check, check_all)
-            return to_text(response, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
+            return to_text(response, errors='surrogate_then_replace')
         except (socket.timeout, AttributeError):
             self.queue_message('error', traceback.format_exc())
             raise AnsibleConnectionFailure("timeout value %s seconds reached while trying to send command: %s"
diff --git a/test/units/modules/network/aireos/test_aireos_command.py b/test/units/modules/network/aireos/test_aireos_command.py
index b7fc8f42834..247d66492dc 100644
--- a/test/units/modules/network/aireos/test_aireos_command.py
+++ b/test/units/modules/network/aireos/test_aireos_command.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ from units.compat.mock import patch
 from ansible.modules.network.aireos import aireos_command
 from units.modules.utils import set_module_args
 from .aireos_module import TestCiscoWlcModule, load_fixture
+from ansible.module_utils import six
 
 
 class TestCiscoWlcCommandModule(TestCiscoWlcModule):
@@ -105,3 +106,17 @@ class TestCiscoWlcCommandModule(TestCiscoWlcModule):
         commands = ['show sysinfo', 'show sysinfo']
         set_module_args(dict(commands=commands, wait_for=wait_for, match='all'))
         self.execute_module(failed=True)
+
+    def test_aireos_command_to_lines_non_ascii(self):
+        ''' Test data is one variation of the result of a `show run-config commands`
+        command on Cisco WLC version 8.8.120.0 '''
+        test_data = '''
+        wlan flexconnect learn-ipaddr 101 enable
+        `\xc8\x92\xef\xbf\xbdR\x7f`\xc8\x92\xef\xbf\xbdR\x7f`
+        wlan wgb broadcast-tagging disable 1
+        '''.strip()
+        test_string = six.u(test_data)
+        test_stdout = [test_string, ]
+        result = list(aireos_command.to_lines(test_stdout))
+        print(result[0])
+        self.assertEqual(len(result[0]), 3)