November 10, 2015
Today, a Massachusetts state court rejected Sprint’s request that Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon tender a $65 million bond to cover the alleged cost of its 90-day WiMax extension. In her ruling, Judge Janet Sanders called Sprint’s bond request “astronomical,” and also rejected Sprint’s request for a stay of last week’s preliminary injunction, which forced Sprint to stop its planned shutdown of the WiMax network on Nov. 6.
“Once again, the court has issued a call to Sprint to honor its professed commitment to closing the digital divide,” said John Schwartz, the founder and president of Mobile Citizen. “We hope Sprint will stop dragging its heels and work with us to ensure our 300,000 children, families, teachers and community members can keep their broadband access and their communications lifeline.”
A decision has yet to be made on the appeal Sprint filed when it lost last week’s injunction. That emergency relief ordered Sprint to maintain its WiMax network in certain areas for 90 days to allow Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon time to migrate their users to Sprint’s LTE network; provide accounts as good as the highest level of retail service provided on the Sprint network; and provide devices that connect to Sprint’s LTE network.