Potentially opening the door to penalty-free cellphone contract cancellations, Sprint customers received the following in their December invoice:

"Effective February 2007, Sprint will charge $1.79 per call for directory assistance. Also effective February 2007, a reconnect fee of $25 will be charged per account if your account is disconnected for nonpayment"

In October, Sprint raised the text messaging rates from $.10 to $.15, which constituted a material change to the contract and allowed many subscribers to leave service without paying early-termination fee.

Will this work the same way? — BEN POPKEN