ZTE’s Operations Shutdown Stymies Major Phone Customers

AT&T, Telstra, others reassess ties in wake of a U.S. ban on component sales to the Chinese company

Dan Strumpf in Hong Kong and

Wayne Ma in Shenzhen, China

May 10, 2018 9:06 a.m. ET

Customers of ZTE Corp. world-wide are reassessing their ties with the hobbled Chinese telecommunications firm, concerned that supplies of phones and networking gear will soon run short after assembly lines were shut down.

Telstra Corp., Australia’s biggest telecom carrier, said Thursday it would no longer carry its own-branded smartphones manufactured by ZTE because it couldn’t guarantee supply. AT&T, the major U.S. distributor of ZTE phones, and MTN, one of Africa’s biggest networks, said they were assessing the impact...