As a result of a California class action lawsuit filed for alleged company anticompetitive practices, Sprint has offered to provide customers with the necessary codes to unlock their phone so that they can then use it on a competitor’s network. The offer is part of a proposed settlement.
The move, should it pass to be, would then theoretically allow customers to reuse their phone on other CDMA networks (including Verizon and Alltel). I say theoretically because those carriers would still need to activate the phone on its own network. None of Sprint’s competitors have yet indicated that they would do such a thing.
The settlement will cover customers who bought a Sprint phone between Aug. 28, 1999, and July 16, 2007. I hope that this means that for more recent customers, the policy is already in place.
T-Mobile is facing a similar lawsuit and iPhone users have also filed two separate lawsuits against AT&T and Apple.