T-Mobile appears all set to eliminate any remaining traces of Sprint in a few months. A leaked company document reveals that the carrier will stop supporting legacy Sprint SIM cards on May 1, 2023. The firm has already notified users about this impending service shutdown.
Sprint SIM cards will be non-functional in a few months
According to a document published by The T-Mo Report, T-Mobile has been urging legacy Sprint customers to replace their Sprint SIM card with a T-Mobile SIM card for over a year now. It started sending email and SMS notifications before pulling the plug on Sprint’s 3G and 4G LTE networks last year. The company told those users that their SIMs are reaching the end of life and needed to be replaced soon. If they don’t take any action by May 1, 2023, they will lose cellular connectivity and services, including calls and texts. Even 911 calls may not work.
However, a year later, some people are still dragging on with the aging Sprint SIM. To ensure that everyone is on the T-Mobile network, the company has now started sending legal notices to those people. The first notice was served a few days back, on February 1, 2023. It urged legacy Sprint customers to get a T-Mobile SIM card for their existing phone number and enjoy interrupted cellular connectivity and services. The notice also contains a link to an official support page with instructions on how to replace the SIM or upgrade to a new device.
“The Sprint network has been retired. You have a line(s) on your account with an outdated SIM that will stop working on May 1. Let’s install a free T-Mobile SIM and/or upgrade you to a new device (if needed) so you can continue connecting to the T-Mobile network,” the message reads. T-Mobile will resend this notification to customers who don’t take any action on March 1. A third legal notice will be served on April 3, along with email/SMS notifications. A month after that, customers who don’t switch to a T-Mobile SIM will lose service.
T-Mobile may not extend the deadline any further
T-Mobile complete its high-profile merger with Sprint in April 2020. Since then, the company has been working on moving Sprint’s customers to its fold. It delayed the shutdown of Sprint’s 3G and 4G LTE networks to give customers more time to take necessary actions. About three years after the merger, T-Mobile is now bidding adieu to Sprint SIM cards as well. And it’s unlikely to extend this deadline. After all, the company has been notifying users about this for over a year now. We will let you know as soon as we have more information.