There’s little worse than watching a close friend or loved-one slowly waste away before your eyes. Earlier this month, despite continued protests that unlimited data wasn’t going anywhere when it comes to smartphones, Sprint put some new limitations in place when using data to tether to other devices. Now the slow, painful transformation of Sprint into just another clone of all the other major carriers continues, with the arrival of news that it’s now blocking access to tethering apps in the Android Market.

While we may protest, ultimately carriers are going to run their networks as profitably as they can while staying within the law. Until the FCC becomes a little less impotent, this sort of behavior is totally expected; frankly, it’s surprising that Sprint resisted for as long as it did.

It’s also sad just how ineffectual this move is, as there’s little keeping you from sideloading a tethering app to your Sprint Android smartphone. At least unlimited data remains more-or-less intact… for now.

Source: Sprintfeed