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Communications United States

T-Mobile Will Shut Down Sprint's 4G LTE Network on June 30, 2022 (cnet.com) 21

T-Mobile has been moving to integrate Sprint into its operations since completing its merger last April. This week the next step was detailed, with a support page on the carrier's website revealing that T-Mobile plans to shut down Sprint's 4G LTE network on June 30, 2022. An anonymous reader writes: The page, spotted by Light Reading, details a bit about why it is doing this. The company says that "retiring older network technologies" allow it "to free up resources and spectrum that will help us strengthen our entire network, move all customers to more advanced technologies and bridge the Digital Divide." Part of this process, the post continues, "involves moving Sprint's LTE spectrum to the T-Mobile network."

T-Mobile says that "most" Sprint LTE and 5G devices can work with its LTE or 5G network. It adds that those devices "will continue to operate on T-Mobile's LTE and 5G networks," so long as those Sprint users upgrade from Sprint-issued SIM cards to ones from T-Mobile. You will also need to make sure that Voice over LTE (also known as VoLTE) is enabled for voice calls.

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T-Mobile Will Shut Down Sprint's 4G LTE Network on June 30, 2022

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  • More spectrum makes the remaining 4G system even better.
  • I got a call and was told that a Sprint phone on my plan would cease to work when Sprint's network is shut down. Now the story is I just need to enable VoLTE and get a new SIM card. Jerks!
    • TFA/S says "most" phones will still work with a new SIM and VoLTE enabled. Perhaps your phone isn't part of "most".

      I had that situation with the Qualcomm QCP-1900 I got in 1998 when nTelos sold their spectrum to Sprint in my area in 2015. My phone wasn't compatible with Sprint's network. Service directly with Sprint was more expensive than my needs so I got my current Kyocera HydroVIBE and service from Ting for a lot less money -- typically about $15/month. Ironically, Ting uses/used Sprint for their un

  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Friday August 06, 2021 @04:28PM (#61664931) Journal
    Every time I go Niagara falls, even when I stay on US side 100% of the time, even though I had turned off roaming, I will get some roaming international call charges from some outfit called Roger Wireless or something.

    They will waive it once I call, but often it is a buck or two, and it is not worth my time calling and staying on line to get the tech support. But it bugs me.

  • October 2019, my cat knocked my 6 month old phone into my cup of hot tea. I didn't notice until I took a sip, then did everything I could to save the phone. Long story short, I didn't like any of the phone options for Sprint so I picked the less evil one (Galaxy A20). Then a month or two later Sprint and T-Mobile merged. Had I been able to wait another month I could have gotten a much better phone but, well, cat and no landline.

    My phone is 4G and you're telling me T-Mobile (a merger I thought was A B
    • Shouldn't obsolete anything, just need a different SIM card to slap in your A20.

      • by Calydor ( 739835 )

        Fortunately not in the US so this doesn't affect me, but I got my A5 in 2017. It does everything I need from a phone except for one thing - the phone does not support 5G. At all. It seems ... premature to be shutting down a network that is required by hardware sold only half a decade ago.

        • by _merlin ( 160982 )

          They're only shutting down the Sprint LTE network. They have their own LTE network that they already had before the merger, which they are not shutting down. Former Sprint customers jut need to get a new SIM card, no phones will be made obsolete by this.

  • Converting to T-Mobile Sim cards completely disrupted our service. We had to switch back to Sprint Sim cards in order to get our Iphones to even get 1 bar. I suppose we will likely have upgraded phones by then but this doesn't sound so great for customers who don't want to upgrade or those who live in some areas. I suspect they'll just lose coverage period.
  • It's December 26th. The new toys sit forgotten all over the living room floor. The kids are rolling down the hill in the boxes the tays came in.

    Telecomms companies claim they are expensive because they commit to supporting crazy SLAs and support "legacy" systems practically forever. Meanwhile, they have dumped all the tech that had any sort of legally mandated SLA and the new marketing hotness from 2 years ago is now the obsolete tech they're dumping for this year's new hotness (which will be next year's ol

  • It costs relatively little to keep an established network going.
    With the 4G, it is ideal for doing IoT type stuff. And yet, T-Mobile is killing it. Why? Because like ATT, they want to force customers over to 5G.
    • I think you are misinterpreting. By area most of the country will never have 5G because the range is so short. There are 80 houses in this immediate area, and it would take at least three and possibly four 5G towers to cover it.

      I just got 4G a year ago when Verizon finally decided to turn off 3G. (And had to change vendors, as Verizon's shiny new 4G tower was behind the hill from my line of sight.)

      They are turning off Sprint's towers. Some phones may not be adaptable enough to move. My previous ancient flip

    • Is telecom actually and really running a 5G standalone network or much like everyone else piggybacked on 4G tech in the so-called 5g nr nso mode (5g newradio non-standalone)?

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