TL; PhD
- T-Mobile revealed that it will shut down Sprint’s LTE network on June 30, 2022.
- You must use updated equipment to maintain service.
- The CDMA network was originally scheduled to be closed on January 1 of that year.
The LTE shutdown will take place half a year after the announced plan to deactivate the Sprint CDMA network on January 1, 2022. T-Mobile has started to remind customers at the end of 2020 and promised to notify all those who need to take action. The operator argues that this will not only help people achieve “true broadband speed”, but also allow T-Mobile to further improve the free spectrum of LTE and 5G performance.
read more: The best T-Mobile phone you can buy
T-Mobile also plans to shut down its 2G and UMTS-based 3G networks, but the deadline has not yet been determined.
The timing is not entirely surprising. T-Mobile’s 5G network may cover the whole country, but it lacks some intermediate frequencies needed to improve performance. The sooner T-Mobile takes back the Sprint LTE network, the better the company can compete with rival operators. These competitors are also taking similar measures. AT&T will shut down its 3G network in early 2022, Verizon (disclaimer: the author of this article is owned by Verizon small tools) Plan to take equivalent measures in early 2023.
However, if you are a Sprint user, this LTE shutdown may not excite you. If you have not received the notification before, now if you want to maintain the service, you can replace the device (or provider) in less than a year. This is a real problem when T-Mobile only transfers about a third of Sprint customers to its cellular system. You may have to upgrade your phone faster than expected, which may mean adapting to less excellent hardware.