Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Oct. 29, 2007

As part of the company's proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit filed last year in California, mobile carrier Sprint Nextel has agreed to allow departing customers to unlock their phone handsets.

Sprint said it will provide customers with specific codes to unlock their handsets.

But Sprint's codes won't work with Nextel-branded phones that use the iDEN network protocol. Sprint said the unlocked handsets will only work with CDMA-compatible carriers, such as Verizon Wireless or Alltel.

The proposed settlement is awaiting final approval by a Superior Court judge in Alameda County. The lawsuit accused Sprint Nextel of anticompetitive practices because customers who wanted to switch carriers were forced to buy new handsets.

However, the settlement doesn't include Sprint paying any monetary damages. Instead it would cover a similar lawsuit filed last year in Florida.

In the terms of its settlement, Sprint has said it will share the unlocking code with all current and former mobile subscribers once their phones had been de-activated, and upon condition that their bills have been paid in full.

Sprint said it would also add information about the unlocking codes as part of new customers' terms and conditions of service.

The carrier also said that it would instruct customer service representatives on connecting non-Sprint phones to the Sprint network.

Recently, many mobile phone carriers have come under scrutiny for the common practice of locking phones to their networks.

AT&T faces similar lawsuits regarding its exclusive contract with Apple over the iPhone. Some industry observers think this could potentially be an early sign of change coming to the industry.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Source: Wireless Week