Former Sprint CDMA Network Shutdown: 01/01/22

[@TheRealDanny]

https://twitter.com/iansltx/status/1...685346826?s=20



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[jmac32here]

In some areas, namely on colo tmo sprint towers, b26 is already offline. Can vouch.

Also this letter only confirms letters sent to mvnos back in October, which said essentially the same thing.

What this means, for all those who said i was wrong and nothing changed on sprint’s network: Tmo plans to have sprint cdma completely offline by 1/1/2020 and can not guarantee the network will be fully available even throughout 2021.

Sounds like they are in the process of starting the decommissioning of cdma by how this letter is worded.


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[joseg2016]

The image in post #1 including the hyperlink address given in post, is not readable.

Imaginably, post #2 helps to understand what is needed.

[jmac32here]

After a bit of chatting on Twitter, I found out this letter was dated 12/11/2020.

[Haas_Dave]

I got a voicemail from the T-Mobile rep I bought my recent phone from, basically explain this without the date mentioned. They are hard pushing TNX to get things going quickly. (This is why I don't like buying in store, but had to to be running ASAP after being robbed the previous evening...).

I had to pull teeth to make sure I got my plan retained and not setup on TNX when I activated. I like having Sprint's roaming partners for voice, since some still don't have an agreement with T-Mobile for VoLTE and Verizon is about to shut off CDMA access.

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[jmac32here]

If we are following the same playbook as we did with metro.

The compatible tech will be moved and integrated into our own (lte 25/41) with dual casting for both networks (sprint/tmo) until most customers are migrated over.

At the same time, we will be turning down a lot of sprints cdma towers that provide overlapping coverage and densification. Leaving only a “skeleton network” in its place so overall coverage should not be majorly affected till we pull the final plug.

We will also do what we can to retain towers that will help improve coverage/densification where possible and add our own tech to them.

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[J Wireless]

Based on memories of working for Sprint prepaid when iDen got shut off, I'd say the sooner they shut off CDMA, the better. There will be people who will wait until the last minute to switch over, or who will feel they should be given a free phone to switch. But we are talking about a 3G technology in a world that is pushing 5G and working on 6G as we speak. The devices that heavily relied on the CDMA network to provide solid coverage are near the end of their life expectancy anyway. Hopefully this can be done without any major headaches to everyone.

[geekboy1984]

Id say that people who have paid their bill on time and kept that 3G phone for 10 years deserve a free replacement. Those are the type of customers who just use their service and don't raise a fuss. Plus when you spend $600 on a phone, the expectation is that it will last forever. Thats half a paycheck for me. Now, to get a high end device is closer to 1000 or even more in certain cases. My iPhone 11 Pro Max cost me 2 grand because I didn't qualify for carrier finance so I had to go through Rent-A-Center. You bet your butt that I darn well expect this iPhone 11 Pro Max to last at least 7 years. People shouldn't have to sacrifice their 1st born every year just to get a high end device.

Also, lets look at this.
AMPS, or 1G, lasted about 25 years
2G lasted about 15 years
3G came to my area in 2010 and by 2020 already taking it down. so not even 10 years?
Makes no sense.
Also, the On Star in my car which I use to Start it from my phone, locate it in the parking lot, get navigation directions, etc depends on CDMA. I can't imagine they will take down a network completely and force me to depend on devices not integrated into my car for such things. This car cost me 34k. that was like 2 years of salary back when I bought it.

Basically my point is you can't just disable infrastructure without fairly compensating people who depend on it. the free phone should be at least an iPhone 11 Pro.

[hwertz]

Based on memories of working for Sprint prepaid when iDen got shut off, I'd say the sooner they shut off CDMA, the better. There will be people who will wait until the last minute to switch over, or who will feel they should be given a free phone to switch. But we are talking about a 3G technology in a world that is pushing 5G and working on 6G as we speak. The devices that heavily relied on the CDMA network to provide solid coverage are near the end of their life expectancy anyway. Hopefully this can be done without any major headaches to everyone.

Problem is, when T-Mo bought out Sprint, believe it or not they still had a large portion of their network NOT upgraded to support VoLTE yet, and some phones that should be VoLTE-capable never received VoLTE-capable firmware for the Sprint models since Sprint was years away from completing their VoLTE rollout anyway. Don't think because only ancient T-Mobile phones lack VoLTE that it's the same for Sprint, it's not. I mean, a list I saw that says anything before the Sprint-model IPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 do not have VoLTE support; for Verizon for instance VoLTE support goes back to the Galaxy S5, and some Galaxy S4 models. An S7 is *pretty* old but it's not exactly some ridiculous antique.

I seriously think if Sprint had not been purchased, a bit down the road they would have ended up being unable to buy compatible phones (i.e. areas still with no VoLTE still so they require 1x, but nobody making 1x/EVDO/LTE devices any more.)

[jmac32here]

Problem is, when T-Mo bought out Sprint, believe it or not they still had a large portion of their network NOT upgraded to support VoLTE yet, and some phones that should be VoLTE-capable never received VoLTE-capable firmware for the Sprint models since Sprint was years away from completing their VoLTE rollout anyway. Don't think because only ancient T-Mobile phones lack VoLTE that it's the same for Sprint, it's not. I mean, a list I saw that says anything before the Sprint-model IPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 do not have VoLTE support; for Verizon for instance VoLTE support goes back to the Galaxy S5, and some Galaxy S4 models. An S7 is *pretty* old but it's not exactly some ridiculous antique.

I seriously think if Sprint had not been purchased, a bit down the road they would have ended up being unable to buy compatible phones (i.e. areas still with no VoLTE still so they require 1x, but nobody making 1x/EVDO/LTE devices any more.)

Makes an awful lot of sense, especially since there are areas that didn't ever seem to even get Sprint LTE, but had 1x/3G.

Also would make sense as to why MVNO's didn't get VoLTE since historically carriers would ensure full rollout and compatibility to their own customers first.
(Usually MVNO's would get it when carriers began to prepare to ramp down support for the older voice networks.)

[DRNewcomb]

Id say that people who have paid their bill on time and kept that 3G phone for 10 years deserve a free replacement. Those are the type of customers who just use their service and don't raise a fuss. .

T-Mobile is offering free replacement phones to their customers who use certain non-VoLTE devices.

[bobdevnul]

...Basically my point is you can't just disable infrastructure without fairly compensating people who depend on it. the free phone should be at least an iPhone 11 Pro.

They can disable obsolete infrastructure any time they want to and they don't owe you anything, certainly not an $800 phone to replace your ten year old one.

[brad15]

Id say that people who have paid their bill on time and kept that 3G phone for 10 years deserve a free replacement. Those are the type of customers who just use their service and don't raise a fuss. Plus when you spend $600 on a phone, the expectation is that it will last forever. Thats half a paycheck for me. Now, to get a high end device is closer to 1000 or even more in certain cases. My iPhone 11 Pro Max cost me 2 grand because I didn't qualify for carrier finance so I had to go through Rent-A-Center. You bet your butt that I darn well expect this iPhone 11 Pro Max to last at least 7 years. People shouldn't have to sacrifice their 1st born every year just to get a high end device.

Also, lets look at this.
AMPS, or 1G, lasted about 25 years
2G lasted about 15 years
3G came to my area in 2010 and by 2020 already taking it down. so not even 10 years?
Makes no sense.
Also, the On Star in my car which I use to Start it from my phone, locate it in the parking lot, get navigation directions, etc depends on CDMA. I can't imagine they will take down a network completely and force me to depend on devices not integrated into my car for such things. This car cost me 34k. that was like 2 years of salary back when I bought it.

Basically my point is you can't just disable infrastructure without fairly compensating people who depend on it. the free phone should be at least an iPhone 11 Pro.

Um they sure can, and the phones in question would be so old being 2g/3g only would be useless for apps today IF they even had them.. so offering a mid-range Android phone is more than enough for someone holding onto a 10yr old phone for practically no reason.

If they do not like it, feel free to go to AT&T or Verizon who will not allow them to use a 3G device on a new line, and AT&T is for sure shutting 3g off in 2022, just like they did with 2G/GSM a few years ago.

Also, the car analogy with OnStar is moot, that's GM's fault for not being forward thinking and using LTE. I know people who bought cars with Analog phones built in - in 2005. But guess what? 3yrs later it got shut off.. Tech moves on and it's why I personally drive older cars I can upgrade with modular things. No payments, cheap maintenance I can usually do myself, and no trash cellular that can be obsolete in a few years. I bought a newer GM with OnStar in it, and sold it a few years later.. got something older that was easy to work on and no payments/debt - by far the best decision I ever made there.

[hwertz]

Um they sure can, and the phones in question would be so old being 2g/3g only would be useless for apps today IF they even had them.. so offering a mid-range Android phone is more than enough for someone holding onto a 10yr old phone for practically no reason.

Well, again, Sprint it was more like 4-5 years ago, not 10. But agreed, a fairly low-end new Android phone will meet or exceed every spec of something like an S7, let alone anything older. Even if that S7 was top-of-the-line when new they're not owed a top-of-the-line replacement, might be nice to offer a free replacement or some $$$ off instead if they do want to buy a higher-end replacement.

[brad15]

Well, again, Sprint it was more like 4-5 years ago, not 10. But agreed, a fairly low-end new Android phone will meet or exceed every spec of something like an S7, let alone anything older. Even if that S7 was top-of-the-line when new they're not owed a top-of-the-line replacement, might be nice to offer a free replacement or some $$$ off instead if they do want to buy a higher-end replacement.

Even the phones Sprint sold 4-5yrs ago could have had VoLTE (at least for "high end android") but Sprint just never enabled it.

A six year old Galaxy S6 though... while it WAS a great phone (the last samsung phone I personally liked, actually), a mid-range android phone today is still going to perform far better with better battery life (and be on a current OS to boot)

Any cheap android phone from the time is going to be trash to use now, and the Galaxy series would only need a small update to enable VoLTE if T-Mobile decides to go that route (It would not be hard, as the S6 and above have at least B12 support), and iPhone 6 and newer just need a carrier pack update, but the 6 will have reduced service due to no Band 12 - but a phone that old simply needs replaced anyway - and i'm sure T-Mobile has plenty of refurb T-Mobile branded S7's around, as well as iPhone 6s's available to swap out for people, but it's still better to just give them a free, new mid-range device and move on.