U.S. Justice Department says concerned about T-Mobile CDMA shutdown on DISH

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Justice Department said in a letter released on Monday that it has “grave concerns” about T-Mobile’s plan to shut down a network that Dish Network uses to offer pre-paid service to customers, many of whom are poor.

T-Mobile, which closed its $26 billion deal for Sprint last year, had sold Sprint’s Boost prepaid business to DISH as part of a deal to win U.S. government approval for its merger. The customers were on Sprint’s CDMA network, which T-Mobile has now said that it planned to shut down on Jan. 1.