President Donald Trump is doubling down on his defense of Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE.  Trump said on Twitter on Monday that ZTE, the fourth-largest smartphone maker in the US by market share, “buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies.” HE also said ZTE was “reflective of the larger trade deal we are …

Count President Donald Trump as one of Chinese phone maker ZTE’s new allies.  ZTE, the fourth-largest smartphone maker in the US, has been dealing with a US Commerce Department denial order that prevents US businesses from selling hardware or services to the company — a seven-year ban that forced ZTE to shut down its “major operating activities.”  It looks, though, like ZTE …

The reports of ZTE’s death are greatly exaggerated. Well, at least for now. The fate of the Chinese maker of telecommunications gear has been up in the air since ZTE disclosed on Wednesday that it had shut down “the major operating activities of the company.” The closure followed a US Commerce Department denial order, which banned any American businesses from …

The years-long wireless industry twist on the will-they-won’t-they romantic comedy is finally reaching its climax. T-Mobile and Sprint finally — finally! — agreed to get together. The $26 billion deal would combine the nation’s third and fourth largest wireless carriers, creating a larger player to better compete against industry leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Under the deal, T-Mobile parent Deutsche …

The fate of the AT&T — and potentially all media deals — is in the hands of a judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia.  It’s in the courtroom of Judge Richard Leon that AT&T and Time Warner are battling with the Justice Department over their right to merge, bringing together one of the largest telecom …

For Verizon, no news is bad news when it comes to customer growth.  After a flurry of promotional activity in 2017, which saw the return of unlimited data plans in a big way, as well as media bundles like free Netflix for T-Mobile subscribers and HBO Go thrown into AT&T wireless plans, US wireless carriers backed down with fewer discounts …

The upcoming LG G7 ThinQ smartphone will have a unique, physical connection to Google Assistant.  The flagship phone, slated to be unveiled in a New York event on May 2, will sport a dedicated hardware button specifically for Google’s digital assistant, according to people familiar with the smartphone. The Google Assistant button will be on the left side of the phone, while …

Oculus, the virtual reality unit of Facebook, is getting its ducks in a row for the upcoming European Union privacy rules.  The VR unit on Thursday introduced a new “My Privacy Center” with tools to view your information and the data you’ve shared with Oculus. It will launch on May 20. It’s also updating its terms of service and privacy …

AT&T is getting more than 100 cities ready for 5G. Just don’t be misled by how it’s doing it.  The Dallas telecommunications giant said on Thursday that it’s rolling out its “5G Evolution” technology to parts of 117 markets, bringing its total to 141. New cities include larger cities like Miami and Dallas and smaller cities like Reno, Nevada, and …

Qualcomm just got through fending off a takeover, but it can’t seem to complete its own attempt at an acquisition.  The San Diego-based mobile chip giant has spent the past year and a half attempting to acquire Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors, which makes chips for the automotive industry and digital networks. The deal is critical to Qualcomm effort to expand beyond …