Sprint just cannot get its WiMAX network shut down.
After having Nov. 6, 2016 set as the official shutdown date for more than a year, Sprint won’t be able to fully turn off the network Friday due to a preliminary injunction handed down by a Massachusetts state court.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen. The companies say they’re using the WiMAX network to provide broadband access to 300,000 primarily low-income Americans and at sites including schools, non-profits and libraries.
“Today, the courts preserved a lifeline for the communities and families we serve,” Katherine Messier, managing director of Mobile Beacon, said in a statement. “We hope Sprint will now work with us to ensure the elderly, disabled, students and other vulnerable populations who rely on our service can transition to LTE quickly and avoid any disruption in service.”
Sprint now has to maintain WiMAX in certain areas for an additional 90 days, as mandated by the injunction, to allow Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon more time to migrate their customers over to Sprint’s LTE network.
“We remain committed to an equitable solution for all parties and are hopeful that Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen will work with Sprint in good faith to get their customers transitioned so that they can remain connected,” Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge Walsh said in a statement. “We plan to continue to protect our rights in this contract dispute and expect to prevail on the merits. We are reviewing the decision and evaluating our options.”
When the lawsuit was first issued in October, Vinge Walsh said Sprint has worked diligently to transition all partners and customers ahead of the WiMAX shutdown.
“This is about a contract dispute. Simply put, the reality of this situation is that Sprint is trying to keep this service on, not turn it off. The fact is, Sprint has gone to great effort to work with all WiMAX users to transition WiMAX accounts to LTE, for the express purpose of improving the consumer broadband experience, not shutting it off. And we have been very successful at transitioning the majority of these accounts. But the transition cannot take place without the cooperation of each licensee,” said Vinge Walsh.
Sprint said that like its other licensee partners, Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen could have transitioned their end users to the new LTE network months before the scheduled shutdown.
A Mobile Citizen spokesperson said it had been negotiating with Sprint for more than a year and that “instead of offering meaningful solutions, however, Sprint is offering cut-rate service.”
This article has been updated to include comment from Sprint.