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.
The CPUC says T-Mobile said under oath its CDMA network would be available to Boost users until they were moved to DISH’s LTE or 5G service, and maintaining the CDMA network wouldn’t affect T-Mobile’s 5G buildout. The Commission also claims that T-Mobile asserted all former Sprint customers would have a seamless upgrade experience during the migration and DISH would have up to three years to complete that move. “T-Mobile also omitted and/or provided misleading information regarding the fact that Sprint’s PCS spectrum was used to provide service to Boost customers on the CDMA network and the same spectrum blocks would be required for the build-out of the T-Mobile 5G network,” said Bemesderfer, according to the transcript.
David Gelfand, an attorney representing T-Mobile, told the CPUC there’s no basis to find the carrier in violation. “This should not be a close call. T-Mobile was candid and truthful” in its testimony, he said.
Gelfand said there’s been an incorrect assumption that T-Mobile guaranteed it would delay the shutdown of Sprint’s “antiquated” CDMA network “for three years, no matter what, essentially at DISH’s discretion. T-Mobile gave no such guarantee. It did not give DISH an unfettered right to force T-Mobile to string things out,” said Gelfand.
According to T-Mobile, the California approval required the carrier to get the network ready for migration, “which in California means investing billions of dollars to visit thousands of towers and install new equipment,” he explained. T-Mobile was required to give DISH six months’ notice of CDMA shutdown, according to Gelfand. T-Mobile ultimately gave DISH 15 months’ notice. DISH thought it would get more time.
T-Mobile also asserts it’s up to DISH to upgrade its devices so Boost customers can be moved to the new network. Gelfand said neither the Justice Department nor the CPUC required T-Mobile to maintain the CDMA for three years “no matter what.”
T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray told the Commission that CDMA was introduced in the 1990s and is a “very poor service and network in comparison to 4G.” He also said it’s challenging to maintain legacy CDMA networks.
Ray said the carrier wants to complete the migration as soon as possible. He agreed with Gelfand that the carrier never agreed to maintain the CDMA network for three years no matter what and was surprised DISH didn’t understand that.
Bemesderfer gave T-Mobile a deadline of October 15, to submit a post-hearing brief. DISH must reply by October 29.
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