November 5, 2015
A Massachusetts state court granted a preliminary injunction today, stopping Sprint from its plan to shut off broadband access tonight to 300,000 vulnerable Americans, including 1,820 nonprofits, 429 schools and 61 libraries across the country.
“The injunction compels Sprint to honor its professed commitment to closing the digital divide,” said John Schwartz, the founder and president of Mobile Citizen. “It’s unfortunate it took a court order to stop Sprint from shutting off 300,000 children, families, teachers and community members from access to the American dream. But we look forward to moving ahead positively with Sprint and ensuring that everyone in our community can keep the service they rely on to connect to the larger world around them.”
The emergency relief orders Sprint to maintain its WiMax network in certain areas for 90 days to allow users to migrate to Sprint’s LTE network and comes on the heels of a lawsuit Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon filed in October.