SprintNextel To Unlock Customers’ Phones

In a move that will make many a CDMA customer very happy, the nation’s third largest carrier will now provide the unlock codes to departing customers.  (AP - Mobile, PC Link)

Some would say that this is LONG overdue.  After fulfilling your contractual obligations, or even just paying the early temination fee, the phone is yours - and not everyone carries the “free” phones that carriers offer.  Why shouldn’t you be able to use your current phone?  Especially in the SprintNextel/Verizon/Alltel arena.  Often the same phone is sold through each carrier, but under the current set of “rules,” you would have to repurchase the very same phone again on the new carrier.

The current situation of US Wireless carriers has been frequently compared to the Ma Bell restrictions of yester-year.  Remember when the big telecom forced you to use only their phones on landline telephone service? Seems pretty crazy by today’s standards, doesn’t it?

-wS