According to the latest news, T-Mobile said it will postpone its planned shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network by three months in order to ensure its “partners” have time to help customers with the transition. T-Mobile initially planned to phase out the network in January 2022 but now, it has been pushed to 31st March 2022.
The company said in a statement, “Recently it’s become increasingly clear that some of those partners haven’t followed through on their responsibility to help their customers through this shift. So, we’re stepping up on their behalf.” Note that the statement doesn’t specify any name but it is likely referring to Dish Network because, in the past few months, the two sides have tangled over T-Mobile’s announcement about the shutting down of Sprint’s legacy network. Dish Network is clearly not happy with the announcement as the impact would be directly seen on Dish’s Boost Mobile customers.
Dish acquired Boost Mobile in July 2020 as one of the conditions of the T-Mobile/Sprint Merger 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, Dish chairman Charlie Ergen compared T-Mobile with Grinch. On contrary, 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.”
Last July, in a letter, the Department of Justice told Dish Network and T-Mobile that it had “grave concerns” about the shutdown of Sprint’s legacy network and urged both sides to take “all appropriate steps” to reduce the impact on customers. We have to wait and see how the events finally turn around.
