Could Sprint be finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? MocoNews reports that according to a recent J.D. Power and Associates study, Sprint tied for first place in best customer service in the Southwest, after nearly two and a half years of coming in dead last.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said in the report that the carrier has jettisoned 85 percent of the plan combinations it used to sell, which greatly simplifies things for customers and sales reps. Hesse also acknowledged that they still have plenty of work to do, noting that an "inherent, natural skepticism" lingers around the carrier, the report said. There's also that little problem about what to do with the Nextel network—letting it atrophy for three years hasn't done much for its reliability or cachet among subscribers.