T-Mobile delays shutdown of Sprint 3G network

T-Mobile delays shutdown of Sprint 3G network

T-Mobile said it will delay its planned shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network by three months to ensure its “partners” have time to help customers with the transition. It had originally planned to phase out the network in January; that date has now been pushed to March 31st, 2022.

To build out our revolutionary network that will deliver the broadest and deepest 5G experience FOR ALL across the country, we need to sunset outdated CDMA technologies as soon as possible so every consumer, no matter their circumstances, will have access to the best connectivity and best experience. This is why we have aggressively executed on plans to take care of transitioning our impacted Sprint CDMA customers by the end of this year and provided our partners plenty of time and resources to take care of their customers as well.

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. We have made the decision to extend our deadline for the CDMA sunset by three months to March 31, 2022.

This decision has no material financial impact to our business and the rapid pace of our 5G buildout will continue. In fact, we just recently shared that now 308 million people are covered by our Extended Range 5G and 186 million of those people are covered by Ultra Capacity 5G and we remain focused on pushing toward our goal of delivering game changing 5G Ultra Capacity to 200 million people by year end. Our reason for extending is simple: we want to give those partners who haven’t done the right thing for their customers every opportunity to step up now and do so.

There should be no more room for excuses. We have provided even more time and those partners can follow suit with the effort that is needed to ensure no one is left on the wrong side of the digital divide.