An article published in Fierce Wireless on February 8 reports that a California Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has recommended that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) deny a petition by DISH Network that seeks to delay T-Mobile's shutdown of the 3G CDMA network that it acquired in its merger with Sprint. T-Mobile is scheduled to closed down the legacy network so that it can repurpose more of its spectrum to support 5G services. DISH has claimed that it was not given reasonable notice about the timeframe for T-Mobile's planned 3G sunset, and it seeks an order by the California agency to delay the sunset. But as reported by Ms. Monica Alleven in Fierce Wireless, the ALJ found that it was reasonable to leave any decision about what constitutes "reasonable notice" regarding the proposed 3G shutdown to the federal government.
The generally recognized industry-wide phase-out and retirement of 3G networks, T-Mobile's unmistakable intent that it would retire Sprint's deficient CDMA network, and T-Mobile's track record in transitioning MetroPCS subscribers within 15 months all go to show that the advance notice given to DISH was reasonable. And it would be wrong to insist that those unforeseeable post-notice occurrences events like lockdowns and chip shortages somehow make T-Mobile's advance notice to DISH or its act of providing advance notice retroactively unreasonable. Those post-notice facts simply aren't relevant to the reasonableness of T- Mobile's advance notice regarding its CDMA network shutdown.
Moreover, DISH could have negotiated for stronger minimum reasonable advance notice protections against risk of loss from future events that might hamper its ability to migrate Boost customers in response to the retirement of Sprint's CDMA network. But it negotiated only for a six-month minimum for reasonable advance notice, and the actual notice it received came several months ahead of the agreed upon minimum.
After the publication of the August 2021 Perspectives, T-Mobile agreed to push back the 3G CDMA network shutdown to March 31 of this year. DISH has requested the shutdown be delayed to as late as July 2023. The CPUC will consider the AJL's recommendation that DISH's petition be denied at its public meeting on March 17.
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