Nonprofits using WiMAX sue Sprint, alleging violation of contracts ahead of network shutdown

Sprint is facing a lawsuit from two nonprofit groups that have been providing mobile WiMAX Internet service to low-income students and families. The groups allege that they had been offering unlimited WiMAX service to more than 300,000 customers.

With Sprint's impending shutdown of the legacy Clearwire WiMAX network in Nov 2015, Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen are being pushed to accept LTE data service that will throttle the speeds of customers after they hit a cap of 6 GB of data, in violation of their contract with Sprint. Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen filed the lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston and claimed they serve 429 schools, 61 libraries and 1,820 nonprofits who are dependent on the WiMAX service for Internet access. "However, our customers tell us that the benefits of one modem have a multiplier effect," said Kristen Perry, a spokeswoman for Voqal, the parent organization of Mobile Citizen.