Sprint starts unlocking phones

Spurred on, perhaps, by the public outcry over the iPhone locking/unlocking saga, Sprint has announced that it will start unlocking the handsets of customers who have fulfilled the terms of their contract. Thus, if you've lived down your year or two of indentured servitude to Sprint, you can have your phone unlocked and will then be able to use it on another CDMA carrier's network, should you so desire. This way, you won't have to buy a new phone when you move to a new network, thereby avoiding the perpetuation of the contract cycle. Conversely, Sprint will now allow customers to use unlocked handsets on its network, though it remains to be seen whether or not other carriers will follow suit. Though this is part of a class-action lawsuit settlement, it's still quite a progressive move on the part of Sprint and suggests that more open wireless networks might be on the horizon.

For more on the move.
- check out this AP story