Opinion: The begining of the end

Friday Sprint announced, due to a class action lawsuit, it would begin to unlock phones on customer request, also that they would accept other providers phones to be used on their network. Phone News had the best article if you want to read on about the details.

This marks the beginning of the end of the cell phone giants restrictive practices (hopefully). Because once one company starts this, the rest are soon to follow. This along with prorated Early Termination fees on AT&T and Verizon means that consumers are going to have more choices. Now they can cancel their contract, pay a smaller ETF, and take their handset to another carrier. Take a look at Europe who has a much more open cell system than we do (I.E. providers in some countries have to sell both locked and unlocked phones), but also in Europe they pay through the nose to use their phones. Could increasing rates be the good ol' US of A's fate? Hopefully not, but if the giants are provoked, they'll fight back. Cell phone companies will find a way to recoup their costs.