According to Light Reading's report on July 1, , from yesterday to today, T-Mobile has been advancing plans to shut down the old wireless network. According to T-Mobile's own "Network Evolution" webpage, the carrier is tearing down Sprint's 4G LTE network and shutting down its own 3G UMTS network.
Image via: Light Reading
A T-Mobile representative told Light Reading: "Customers who needed to take action due to these retirement measures were notified in advance and received a quote for a free 5G replacement device."
According to the T-Mobile Report reports that the carrier is, in fact, offering bill credits to customers who swap their Sprint SIM cards for T-Mobile SIM cards.
This comes after T-Mobile shut down Sprint's 3G CDMA network on March 31 and tore down Sprint's nascent 5G network in 2020 (a move that recently landed T-Mobile in a lawsuit). ATT shut down its own 3G network on February 22, and Verizon plans to shut down its 3G CDMA network on December 31, 2022.
In its latest earnings conference call in April this year, T-Mobile officials revealed that due to the shutdown of 3G CDMA earlier this year, 212,000 postpaid mobile phones and 349,000 other devices (mainly Internet of Things devices) were affected. The person in charge of the company said that this week's network shutdown will affect about 300,000 postpaid mobile phones and 700,000 to 900,000 Internet of Things devices.
(Compiled by: Jinyang)
