Sprint announced plans some time ago to shut down their WiMAX connection completely on November 6. That didn’t happen, at least not completely.
Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen supply nonprofits, libraries, and schools with a wireless connection using the WiMAX network. The groups, along with several nonprofit organizations filed for an emergency injunction to stop the shutdown – at least regarding their access to the network. The injunction said “emergency relief orders Sprint to maintain the WiMAX network in certain areas for 90 days to allow Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen time to migrate their users to Sprint’s LTE network.”
Even though the court order came from a state court in Massachusetts, Sprint is complying with the order and including other states where it would meet the same standard.
The service affects mostly low-income Americans including 429 schools, 61 libraries, 1,820 nonprofits and through those services – nearly 300,000 Americans. Groups provide unlimited internet services to organizations for a $10-per-month fee.
Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon presented licenses to the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum leased by to Clearwire for 30 years. As part of that contract, Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon received payments and use of the network. According to NY Business personality Jonah Engler, “In 2013, Sprint bought Clearwire – and has been shifting the WiMAX spectrum to LTE. But the contract with Clearwire proved their right to the injunction.
The biggest issue centers on Sprint wanting to ditch the unlimited part of the plan and limit customers to the use of 6GB per month and then once they hit that maximum, shift speeds from 6mbps to 256kbps. Since those limits would be hit quickly in the nonprofits, schools, and libraries, the plaintiff’s felt they had no other recourse than to seek relief from the courts.
At this point, Sprint has not changed their ultimate plans, but the plaintiffs hope the 90 days’ negotiating time prove successful on their end to convince Sprint of the necessity to continue the original contract terms.
