California Tries to Get to Heart of T-Mobile-DISH CDMA Shutdown Dispute

 By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief The California Public Utilities Commission is trying to determine whether T-Mobile lied to gain the state’s approval of the carrier’s 2020 acquisition of Sprint. That’s at the heart of a recent CPUC hearing centering on T-Mobile’s dispute with DISH over T-Mobile’s planned shutdown by year-end of its CDMA network.

Before its Sprint acquisition was okayed, T-Mobile pledged that no former Sprint customer would suffer any service degradation after the transaction, according to a transcript of the CPUC hearing. DISH would have up to three years to migrate Boost Wireless customers to the new T-Mobile 5G network. DISH would use this network during the build-out of its own facilities-based network.

“It came as a surprise to the Commission,” when T-Mobile announced in July it would shut down the CDMA network at the end of this year, said CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer. DISH told the CPUC if this happens, a “substantial” number of Boost Mobile customers will be left without wireless service. “Whatever one’s definition of service degradation may be, a complete loss of service qualifies,” said the judge. Continue Reading