Court rules Sprint must maintain WiMAX network in support of nonprofits for 90 days
A Massachusetts court ruled Sprint must maintain its WiMAX network for at least another 90 days in support of more than 300,000 customers still using the network to access the Internet. Sprint was scheduled to fully shutter its WiMAX operations by Nov. 6.
The preliminary injunction followed a lawsuit filed last month by nonprofit organizations Mobile Citizens and Mobile Beacon claiming Sprint’s plans to shut down the WiMAX network would leave 429 schools, 61 libraries and 1,820 nonprofits without Internet access. Those organizations have been accessing mobile broadband services through a wholesale agreement with Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen, which agreed to lease a percentage of its 2.5 GHz spectrum to Clearwire in return for free access to mobile broadband services. Sprint became party to that agreement when it acquired full control of Clearwire in 2013.
Sprint has been turning down its WiMAX network that operates in the 2.5 GHz spectrum band, in favor of its LTE services. The carrier posted those plans in a 2014 Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The legal tussle appears to be about the details of the agreement with Clearwire, which depending on the party interpreting the details, states Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen will have access to unlimited and unthrottled data services. Clearwire had previously offered unlimited data access through its WiMAX-enabled mobile broadband devices, though with the caveat of potential speed throttling should a customer be deemed to exceeding normal usage. Sprint does not currently offer unlimited data access for its LTE-based mobile broadband devices, and recently said it would begin to deprioritize smartphone customers on unlimited data plans should they exceed 23 gigabytes of usage per month and be connected to a congested cell tower.
The court injunction states Sprint must stop the shutdown in certain areas for 90 days to allow the organizations time to migrate their customers from the WiMAX network.
“Today, the courts preserved a lifeline for the communities and families we serve,” said Katherine Messier, managing director of Mobile Beacon. “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 contends the issue is a contract dispute and that those organizations remaining reliant on the WiMAX network had not been cooperating with Sprint on a migration plan.
“We disagree with the court’s decision … but we do hope that Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen will take this time to work cooperatively with Sprint to resolve the contract dispute,” the company said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure that our [Educational Broadband Services] partners and our subscribers can use Sprint’s best 4G LTE advanced broadband services as soon as possible. We will comply with the court’s decision to delay WiMAX decommissioning where it could affect current Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen customers.”
However, Sprint does not appear to be backing down from its position in the matter in how it views terms of the agreement.
“We plan to continue to protect our rights in this contract dispute and expect to prevail on the merits,” the carrier added. “We are reviewing today’s decision and evaluating our options.”
As for the 90-day extension, Mobile Citizen said it hopes to use the time to continue migrating customers to the LTE network.
“The judge gave us 90 days and we intend to devote all of our efforts to transitioning our community over to the new network, so long as Sprint finally stops its delay tactics and starts working with us — and with this decision, the court has sent a strong message to Sprint that this is exactly what it must do,” said Kristen Perry, communications director of Voqal, which owns Mobile Citizen.
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