Recently, Dish Network held its Q1 2021 earnings call where they talked about their plans for Boost Mobile. In the call, however, Dish chairman, Charlie Ergen, couldn’t help but compare T-Mobile to the Grinch. Ergen made the comparison while talking about T-Mobile’s decision to proceed with the shut down date of its CDMA network. 

During the call, Ergen couldn’t hold his frustrations back about T-Mobile’s move. He shares that T-Mobile has “become the Grinch” and that the “Un-Carrier’s become the uncaring carrier.” When the CDMA network shut down will happen next year, it could lead millions of Boost Mobile customers to lose service. 

When Dish acquired Boost from T-Mobile, it didn’t know about T-Mobile’s plans to shut down its CDMA network in just a year. Once T-Mobile finally set the date, Dish expressed its frustrations about the short lifespan of CDMA. It recently penned a letter to the FCC where it called T-Mobile “anti-competitive.” T-Mobile has responded to this letter and shared that they are also in the process of migrating T-Mobile CDMA customers, which outnumber Boost customers by a much larger scale. T-Mo also reminded Dish that they were given a 14-month notice instead of the stipulated 6-month notice. Recently though, Dish has asked the California Public Utilities Commission to reopen its merger investigation. 

In the earnings call, Ergen couldn’t help but share the metaphor, which describes T-Mobile as “heartless.” But he hopes that, just like the book, T-Mobile’s heart would grow three sizes and give back all the toys he stole from the Whos. In Ergen’s case, perhaps he is hoping T-Mobile would extend the CDMA shutdown date.

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