From The Verge: T-Mobile is reportedly delaying its planned shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network again to May 31st (via The T-Mo Report). If the report is accurate, it would be the second time the company has pushed the date back; originally, it was going to phase out the network in January but said in October that it would extend the deadline to March 31st.
T-Mobile didn’t immediately reply to an email from The Verge on Wednesday seeking confirmation of the new date. But a section of the iPhone global services guide on SoftBank’s website, under the header Sprint’s “CDMA Network Shutdown,” says, “due to the circumstances of Sprint, the date has been postponed from March 31, 2022 to May 31, 2022.” It adds that there’s also a possibility the May 31st date may also be “rescheduled in the future.” According to The T-Mo Report, some Sprint customers received emails from T-Mobile that confirmed the May 31st shutdown date.
As one of the conditions of the T-Mobile / Sprint merger, which closed in 2020, Dish acquired Boost Mobile in July 2020 with the goal of Dish taking Sprint’s place as a fourth wireless carrier in the US. After T-Mobile announced it planned to shut down Sprint’s CDMA network, the two companies engaged in some back-and-forth criticisms of each other; Dish chairman Charlie Ergen compared T-Mobile to the Grinch; T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert wrote in a blog post that Dish was “dragging their feet in getting their customers upgraded to the superior 4G/5G world.”
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