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Arris Tells FCC Section 301 Tariffs Will Harm US 5G ‘Leadership,' Broadband Deployment

Arris emphasized “serious concerns” in meetings with aides to Federal Communications Commission Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel about “harmful effects” the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs will have on “U.S. 5G leadership" and broadband deployment, it said in…

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a filing posted Oct. 23. The 10 percent tariffs took effect Sept. 24 on “core broadband infrastructure and networking equipment and other critical inputs for wireless and wireline connectivity, as well as consumer broadband equipment,” and “automatically increase” to 25 percent Jan. 1, Arris said. “At just the 10 percent level,” Arris estimates the fees will impose $200 million a year “in additional costs on its equipment and devices.” The levies already have had “serious business implications,” noting that an analyst downgraded Arris stock because of the higher expected tariff-related costs, the filing said. The tariffs “risk slowing deployment of 5G and broadband more generally, diverting resources away from 5G and other broadband research and development efforts,” it said. Arris also noted in the meeting the need for an “exclusion process” for the third tranche of duties to give affected companies “additional time to make adjustments to their operations and mitigate the harms.”