Why You Can Trust CNET Sprint customers say goodbye to their 5G service
T-Mobile is shutting down the service to bolster its own offering. Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S20 is the only device unaffected.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Only the Samsung Galaxy S20 5G will work on the new T-Mobile network.
T-Mobile has switched off Sprint's 5G network, three months after the carrier's $26.5 billion merger with Sprint was completed on April 1. It's redeploying the airwaves as part of its own 5G service, but unless Sprint's 5G customers have a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G, they'll need a new phone to use T-Mobile's 5G network.
Though T-Mobile already made this move in New York City, it's now switched off Sprint's entire 5G network, which was also live in parts of Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City and Miami.
T-Mobile is already switching the 2.5GHz spectrum back on, and it's available now for 5G in some areas of LA, New York, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.
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"We are working to quickly re-deploy, optimize and test the 2.5GHz spectrum before lighting it up on the T-Mobile network," a T-Mobile spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The carrier is offering replacement phones for former Sprint 5G customers. Customers who lease or finance a 5G phone at more than $10 a month will be given a Galaxy S20 5G for $10 a month after $31.67/month credit on an 18-month lease. Customers who own, lease or finance a 5G phone for less than $10 a month will be given a Galaxy S20 5G for zero dollars a month after $41.67/month credit on a new 18-month lease.
