Sprint today announced that it will fully shut down its legacy iDEN network within 60 days. The last full day of service will be June 29. Sprint will then begin to shut down the iDEN network on Sunday, June 30.
The shutdown process involves taking the switches offline, followed by powering down cell sites and cutting off the backhaul. Thereafter, all services, including voice, data, and 911 emergency, will no longer be available to iDEN customers. Sprint first gave warning a year ago that it should shutter its iDEN network by June 30 of this year.
Today’s announcement falls inline with Sprint’s previously discussed network-shutdown schedule. Sprint has been transitioning customers from iDEN to CDMA for several years. It is offering similar walkie-talkie services though its CDMA-based DirectConnect technology.
The iDEN shutdown is part of Sprint’s larger Network Vision project, which sees it realigning its network technologies across its varied spectrum holdings.
