Sprint Nextel to Unlock Handsets - The UpStream

As part of a lawsuit filed in California, of course, Sprint Nextel will start allowing their stores to unlock handsets to be used on other compatible services (such as Verizon Wireless and Alltel). Also, they will unlock other phones for use on the Sprint CDMA network.

Two things to remember here:

• This ruling will not affect Nextel handsets, since Nextel is the only AMPS network still running in the US.
• When moving a handset, especially a CDMA handset, from one network to another, features do not work. Text, pictures, video, internet, etc are all unique to the carrier, so the only likely feature that will work on an unlocked handset is voice.