The fate of the $26 billion megamerger between T-Mobile and Sprint is in the hands of a federal judge. The companies head to court today, where they’ll defend their deal to combine the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the US against a challenge from state attorneys general who say the merger will hurt competition …

If there’s one thing that politicians on Capitol Hill can agree on, it’s that robocalls must be stopped. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives almost unanimously passed a bill to help put the kibosh on robocalls.  The vote on the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, also known as the TRACED Act, comes as a sharply divided House …

The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it plans to ditch a $4.5 billion subsidy program for 4G LTE in rural areas and instead launch a $9 billion fund to bring 5G wireless to hard to reach parts of the country. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the new fund will help carriers pay for 5G deployments in sparsely populated, hard-to-reach areas …

The states trying to stop the $26.5 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint say their case is simple: Reducing the number of nationwide wireless carriers from four to three reduces competition and is “under well-established law, presumptively illegal.” That’s the gist of the 30-page court document filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra …

T-Mobile and Comcast have teamed up with voice and messaging services provider Inteliquent to demonstrate the first end-to-end call over three networks using the Shaken/Stir framework, which validates where calls originate. The news is a big step forward in implementing the technology, which many hope will slow the growing pace of annoying robocalls.  The companies say they’ve worked out the …

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued a proposal Wednesday to dedicate slivers of the 5.9 gigahertz spectrum band to unlicensed Wi-Fi use and the use of Qualcomm’s cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) protocol. The move is considered somewhat controversial since it goes against recommendations from the US Department of Transportation.  The Qualcomm technology promises to let vehicles wirelessly communicate with one …

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday the agency will hold a public auction of mid-band wireless spectrum to fuel the deployment of 5G. The decision to auction the spectrum ends months of speculation about how the much sought-after airwaves would be put to use to help build the next generation of wireless networks.  The so-called C-band spectrum, which …

T-Mobile CEO John Legere is in talks to become CEO of WeWork, the struggling office-sharing startup, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The company has been looking for a new chief executive since WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann stepped down as CEO last month. WeWork, which provides shared workspaces for tech startups, for the moment is being led …

The Federal Trade Commission and AT&T have agreed to a $60 million settlement to end litigation in the 2014 lawsuit that accused the wireless carrier of deceiving its unlimited-data customers when it slowed their connection speeds.  The FTC said AT&T had charged customers for “unlimited” data plans, but didn’t disclose that service would be slowed, or throttled, if customers reached …

The Federal Communications Commission plans to cut off funding to wireless carriers that use equipment the agency says may pose a national security risk.  The FCC said Monday it’ll vote next month to bar operators that receive Universal Service Fund money from purchasing gear from companies such as Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE, which national security agencies in …