Sprint Cell Phone Unlocking Policy

So there was some class action lawsuit in California involving Sprint, and regarding the fact that they lock their handsets to their network. I said regarding the fact, because I couldn't say their policy, as they didn't have such a policy in place until now, it was kind of unwritten policy.

Well now they will, and they are going to train all their people on the matter. Furthermore, if you are, or were a customer of Sprint, they will be unlocking handsets starting now, soon, I don't know when they are starting this procedure, but it is one of the results of the lawsuit. The best part is, the trial didn't have to go too terribly far, part way in Sprint was kind of like "my bad" and so they offered a solution.

Sprint isn't claiming any guilt, but I don't care if they feel guilty or not, the solution is the same and that's what matters, this time. So, as long as you don't owe Sprint any money, and you have one of their handsets, you'll be able to get it unlocked.

The big hope here is that this might have a slippery slope effect with other cellular providers, meaning we might see an carrier unlocked iPhone here some day, you just might have the pay the full $800 some odd dollars that the iPhone actually costs AT&T by the end of 2 years. All of this is along the lines of what Google is/was trying to get accomplished with the whole spectrum auction thing.

Sprint unlocking settlement may pressure others to follow [via arstechnica]