T-Mobile and Sprint officially became a company this year, but Sprint’s previous network still exists as a separate entity. T-Mobile customers gained the ability to roam Sprint’s cell towers in September (with the correct handsets, at least) and, if the recent news is correct, the legacy network could only last another year.
T-Mobile reportedly started sending notices to its business customers, who say the company will shut down Sprint’s CDMA network entirely “on or around January 1, 2022.” Devices that support Sprint LTE connectivity will continue to function after that date, but CDMA-only phones will not be able to connect. T-Mobile will no longer activate CDMA-only devices after January 1, 2021, so if you are homesick and want to put your SIM in an old phone, you will only have a few days to change.
It is important to note that the source refers specifically to business customers, so termination terms may turn out to be different for regular T-Mobile subscribers. T-Mobile previously said it would terminate 3G access on its own network on January 1, 2021, terminating devices that do not support Voice over LTE.
