Dish Reiterates Need for Full Three-Year Phase-out of Sprint Network

WASHINGTON, November 11, 2021 – A representative from Dish Network reiterated at the INCOMPAS show in Las Vegas late last month the company’s frustration with T-Mobile’s timeline for shutting down the Sprint 3G network on which it serves its customers, as the case drags on in front of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Tom Cullen, executive vice president of corporate development for DISH, also said at the October 26 show the company’s capacity to migrate these new customers on its network is limited by supply chain delays that have caused a shortage in connectivity devices.

Part of T-Mobile’s deal to acquire Sprint, closed last year, required that the latter sell wireless assets, including Boost Mobile, to Dish. During regulatory review of the deal, T-Mobile said it would phase-out Sprint’s 3G and LTE networks within a three-year period following the deal’s closing, enough time for Dish to fully migrate customers over to its own networks. The phase-out would occur sometime in 2023.

But T-Mobile then announced that it would shut down the 3G network in January 2022, with the LTE shutdown occurring by June 30 that year. In an update to the California Public Utilities Commission in May, T-Mobile pushed back the 3G phase-out deadline to March 31, 2022, which it said should serve as grounds to dismiss Dish’s wish for the commission to reinstate the three-year phase-out period.

“DISH submits that while additional time is welcome, three months is not nearly sufficient to protect Boost customers in California – many of whom are low income – who are expected to still be using the CDMA network beyond March 31, 2022,” the Colorado-based company said in a November 3 filing, which reiterating its needs to have the network operational for the full three-year period.

The California Public Utilities Commission ruled in August that T-Mobile had to show why it shouldn’t be penalized for providing “false, misleading, or omitted statements” related to the claim it made about the timeline to shut down the 3G network. The Department of Justice also noted it was concerned about the damage to Dish’s new customer base if the shortened timeline was upheld.

Dish announced this summer that its Boost Mobile is buying Los Angeles-based prepaid and low-cost mobile service company Gen Mobile. Last year, the company purchased Ting Mobile.