It feels like we have a love/hate relationship with mobile carriers sometimes; we need their service to get our smartphones online, but from bloatware, to double-charging us for tethering data, it can feel like we’re constantly facing obstacle imposed by them. That’s probably what makes this news so interesting: Cincinnati Bell is releasing an unofficial, non-Motorola-certified Froyo update for the Milestone XT720, along with providing tools for its users to root the phone.

The process that Cincinnati Bell outlines for installing the update reads like a manual for installing a custom ROM, which should hardly be surprising considering how outside-the-box this update is. From rooting your Milestone, to using Titanium Backup to save your files, this is not your friendly OTA Android update. Cincinnati Bell is clear from the get-go that this task isn’t for everyone, but its helpful guides and videos should go a long way to making the update accessible to anyone with some basic technical competency. Get through it all, and you’ll breathe some new life into your Milestone XT720 thanks to Android 2.2.

We don’t expect this sort of upgrade pathway to become common for any carrier, but it sure is neat to see.

Source: Cincinnati Bell

Via: Phandroid