As part of a proposed settlement to a class-action suit Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel has agreed to provide customers with the code necessary to unlock their phones, after they’ve finished the service and paid their bills reports AP. Sprint won’t have to pay financial damages under the terms of the settlement. Considering people have to pay out the contract—which is justified as necessary to subsidise the handsets— this is something all reasonable carriers should do.

The settlement, which is awaiting final approval by a Superior Court judge in Alameda County, CA, would allow the phones to operate on any CDMA network, including Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Alltel (NYSE: AT) here in U.S. The codes will not work on Nextel-branded phones made by Motorola (NYSE: MOT) that use the iDen protocol. Nor will the codes enable customers to switch to AT&T (NYSE: T) or T-Mobile, of course, as they are GSM based.
NYTimes: The company will also add information about the unlocking codes as part of the terms and conditions of service given to new customers and will instruct its customer service representatives on connecting a non-Sprint phone to the Sprint network.