Singapore Telecommunications on Wednesday posted its smallest annual net profit in 16 years — but the big drag on earnings came from Indonesia and India, according to its CEO.

Telecommunications giant AT&T (NYSE: T) took on $40 billion in debt to acquire Time Warner in June 2018.That's too high for AT&T's liking, so it embarked on a path to pay off what it borrowed to buy Time Warner and, in turn, bring its that ratio down to saner levels. Read More...

Verizon Communications reported its first quarter earnings that surpassed expectations, on the back of solid subscriber growth in its postpaid services. The telecom giant's earnings for the three months ending March came in at $1.22 per share, beating Wall Street analysts' estimates by 3 cents.The figure reflects a +9.9% jump from the year-ago quarter. Net revenues came in at $32.12 billion – unchanged from the prior year period, but in line with analysts' estimates. The company had a net 61,000 addition of retail postpaid subscribers over the quarter.

America’s No.3 wireless carrier, T-Mobile’s latest foray into a new banking product may be a solution for 8.4 million ‘unbanked’ households -- the 6.5% of the American population who not have access to a checking or a savings account. T-Mobile Money is offering a new checking account to customers, especially those with post-paid subscriptions, which could eliminate over-drafting concerns that tag with traditional bank accounts.The service, available to anyone and not just its customers, will allow customers to go up to $50 in the red without incurring penalties as long as the account balance is positive within 30 days.

Layoffs hit their highest level for a first quarter in 10 years as 2019′s job market got off to a shaky start, according to a report Thursday from outplacement firm Challenger, Gary & Christmas. Read More...

WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey on Wednesday refuted news reports of parent company AT&T contemplating a sale of its HBO Europe unit to make good on debt obligations. On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that there have been internal talks within AT&T about divesting HBO Europe (among other assets), although no final discussions with potential buyers had taken place yet." Stankey said, "We normally do not comment on speculation, but when a news outlet is advised that their reporting is factually incorrect and report it anyway, we feel compelled to set the record straight", while adding, “HBO Europe is a valuable asset for our growth plans in Europe.

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ 0.58% said Wednesday morning it turned on its 5G Ultra Wideband Network a week earlier than previously planned. Read More...

Viacom is set to become T-Mobile’s first media partner for the latter’s new TV service. T-Mobile, the third largest U.S. mobile service, has been planning for its new streaming service for a while, during which it apparently met with delays due to the project’s complexity.Teaming up with Viacom would mean live-streaming channels like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon as well as offer on-demand shows on its upcoming wireless TV service.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson knows his company can’t use Huawei’s gear for high-speed networks, because the U.S. government won’t allow it.But in Europe, the Chinese networking company has dominant market share, which is a problem as the world gears up for the move from 4G to 5G, Stephenson said on Tuesday at the Fintech Ideas Festival in San Francisco. Read More...

According to the company, this broadband service would cost its customers just $50/month and would initially be available for 50,000 select mobile customers. This move is also being telegraphed as rationale for the Sprint acquisition, as the company fights against big cable giants like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ).In response, CEO of T-Mobile, John Legere, said that the new company would be a stronger competitor to giants like Verizon Communications and AT&T. He even promised not to raise prices for three years if the deal was approved. According to the company, the pilot program would be available by invitation only and only in the areas where T-Mobile’s LTE 4G network has capacity to deliver high-speed internet access.

Raymond James analysts upgraded their rating on AT&T stock to outperform from market perform. On Friday, analyst Frank Louthan indicated in a note to clients that a sanguine outlook on AT&T earnings’ positive growth coupled with the telecom giant’s deleveraging efforts could lead to its shares outperforming.We believe that the combination of positive earnings growth and delivering over the course of the year will being investors back to AT&T", Louthan mentioned in the note. Louthan also set price target of $34 per share, which is around +12% higher compared to the stock's previous closing price. Last week, AT&T shares trembled after the company announced a major revamp of its DirecTV Now streaming service, including a hike in package prices.

On Wednesday, the company announced the details of the launch. Verizon said that Chicago and Minneapolis would be the first cities to get its next-generation wireless technology for mobile phones starting April 11.Later on in the year, Verizon expects to make 5G accessible to users of Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and LG’s V50 ThinQ as well. Prices start at $85 a month for the base Go Unlimited plan.

WarnerMedia announced a new organizational model and leadership team Monday in hopes of advancing its content development. The Wall Street Journal reported that "significant layoffs" are expected at the company as part of the reorganization, citing sources. The reorganization comes just days after Richard Plepler announced in an internal memo obtained by CNBC that he would step down from his role as HBO CEO.READ MORE...

HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler will leave the premium television network owned by U.S. wireless carrier AT&T Inc after nearly 28 years at the company, Plepler said in a memo to HBO employees on Thursday. Read More...

After a 15-month attempt by the Trump administration to block AT&T’s $85.4 billion purchase deal with Time Warner, the company emerged victorious -- the U.S. Justice Department declared it would not fight an appeals court approval of the deal. President Trump has been critical of this acquisition because he saw it helping Time Warner’s CNN unit, which he accused of disseminating fake news. However, this accusation by the government was deemed unpersuasive by the three judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, resulting in approval of the deal. In an era of Netflix (NFLX) and Google (GOOGL) that allows access of content with no need for cable subscription, the merger is a turning point as it sets the stage for the No.2 wireless carrier to integrate its WarnerMedia business as well as its new Xandr advertising unit. The merger, which was announced in October 2016, closed on June 14, 2018, shortly after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon r

CenturyLink Inc. slashed its shareholder dividend by more than half, causing its stock price to tumble around -9.4% Thursday. The wireless telecom company’s board agreed to lower yearly dividend to $1 from $2.16 – something that the company expects would free up cash for facilitating its debt repayment.As of Dec. 31, its long-term debt stood at $35.4 billion (compared to $20 billion of shareholder equity). Along with announcing the dividend cut, CenturyLink also reported its fourth quarter adjusted earnings of 37 cents a share – which is substantially higher than the year-ago quarter’s 18 cents.

Two landmark cases involving the Shenzhen-based hardware giant Huawei take big steps forward in the coming weeks, as the Trump administration weighs an executive order that may further curtail the ability of American companies to use telecom equipment manufactured in China. Read More...

Therefore, it's difficult to assess whether those efforts involve just one or two cell sites or sites that span a full city. T-Mobile’s launch timeline is relatively close with that of its rivals, like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ), with the former already having launched mobile 5G service in 12 cities.Sprint and Verizon too have promised mobile 5G launches with smartphones in the coming months. T-Mobile's 5G plans are noteworthy because the operator is the only major wireless network provider that is planning to launch 5G services on 600MHz spectrum.

AT&T (T) closed the most recent trading day at $30.40, moving +1% from the previous trading session.Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.51%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.42%. READ MORE...

AT&T (T - Get Report) is planning to hand walking papers to employees in at least 10 operations centers around the country, according to a report by Vice's Motherboard. The reported cuts come as AT&T puts the final wraps on its $85 billion merger with Time Warner, with such corporate combinations often spawning efforts to cut costs and eliminate redundancies. READ MORE...