Sprint has presented its users with an opportunity to get out of their contract without incurring any early termination fees. They are increasing the Regulatory Charge to $.40 per line. This is enough of a change in terms apparently that if you disagree with the new charge, you can simply reject the fee increase, and your service.PhoneNews has the details on the new charges.

Regulatory Charge/Ts&Cs Changes Effective 1/1/10, the Regulatory Charge will increase to $0.40/line. Visit Sprint Ts&Cs or sprint.com/taxesandfees for details; also effective 1/1/10, the Sprint Terms & Conditions (Ts&Cs) are changing. Please review them carefully at sprint.com or on request.

As PhoneNews notes, Sprint customers will get that notice on their next billing statement and will have thirty days from receipt of the bill to reject the fee, otherwise, it is considered accepted. This change is considered material so if you want to get out of your contract sans the dreaded Early Termination Fee, now is the time to do it.

I don't get why Sprint is making this change to all consumers. I would think if they only did this on new and renewing contracts, they'd virtually eliminate the risk of losing customers, at least until the contracts were up. Forty cents per line? Many people are paying $50 or more, considerably more with data charges, per line. If one $75 subscriber cancels because of this, Sprint has to retain nearly 188 customers to just break even.

Of course, Sprint is counting on the fact that most people don't read their statement other than to get the amount due for the month. Even if people did review their statement, unless the part about getting out of the contract were highlighted in some way, most people would miss it. If you are a Sprint customer and either unhappy with your service or are craving some phone on another network, now is your chance.