T-Mobile Postpones CDMA Sunset

T-Mobile will delay shutting down CDMA by three months until March 31, the carrier said Friday. To build out the carrier's 5G network, "we need to sunset outdated CDMA technologies as soon as possible so every consumer, no matter their circumstances, will have access to the best connectivity and best experience," it said. "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.” The postponement won’t have “material financial impact” to T-Mobile’s business, it said. T-Mobile and Dish Network are feuding over the 3G sunset in California and at the FCC (see 2110150012 and 2105060024). DOJ raised red flags in August (see 2105060024). DOJ declined to comment now. Dish, which got Boost prepaid wireless customers as part of a divestiture when T-Mobile bought Sprint, didn't comment by our deadline. Neither did the FCC or California Public Utilities Commission.