Sprint Will Start Unlocking Phones

October 26, 2007 | 1 Comment

Following a class-action lawsuit, Sprint Nextel has agreed to unlock customers’ phones at the end of their contracts and to activate non-Sprint phones on the network. This will allow consumers to take their handsets from one CDMA network to another. Sprint and Verizon Wireless are the big ones in the US, but Alltel, MetroPCS, and Leap have almost 20 million subscribers between them who are also affected by this — assuming the phone operates on the right frequency bands and that the new carrier agrees to activate the phone (MetroPCS and Leap definitely will).

If true, this is a big departure for Sprint, which had the most restrictions until now. But if Sprint agrees to activate any CDMA handset on its network going forward and Verizon Wireless continues to hold the line, Sprint could benefit from this change, in net adds and lower CPGA.

Data services may not work, but those looking for the cheapest option in the market won’t care that they can’t subscribe to VCast.

AP (link will expire) via Engadget.

Author’s Photo Posted by: Jason
Categories: Mobile Market, Public Policy

Comments

One Response to “Sprint Will Start Unlocking Phones”

  • VisionMobile Forum :: Carnival of the Mobilists #97 on October 28th, 2007 6:34 pm

    […] Jason Devitt at Skydeck writes about how Sprint Will Start Unlocking Phones.  Following a class-action lawsuit, Sprint Nextel has agreed to unlock customers’ phones at the end of their contracts and to activate non-Sprint phones on the network - however all is not lost for Sprint. Jason’s short analysis talks about how Sprint could benefit from this change, in terms of net adds and lower CPGA. I like Jason’s realistic view of the repercussions: “Data services may not work, but those looking for the cheapest option in the market won’t care that they can’t subscribe to VCast.” […]