It's finally happening, Sprint users. After standing by and watching your smartphone-owning friends on Verizon and AT&T have their early termination fees bumped up to north of $300, it appears that you'll soon be enduring a similar change. An image sent over to SprintFeed shows that the Now Network will increasing the ETF on some devices to $350 on September 9th. The change will affect Sprint's "advanced devices," which includes smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and notebooks. The good news here is that the ETF amount will continue to decrease each month of your contract just like it currently does.

Despite the fact that many expected this news to come sooner or later, that doesn't make it any less disappointing. As a reminder, anyone out there planning on picking up Sprint's Epic 4G Touch will be subject to this new $350 ETF. Those of you that have had your eye on a currently-available Sprint smartphone, like the EVO 3D or Photon 4G, you've got around a week to pull the trigger before the change goes into effect. What do you make of this ETF increase, Sprint folk? Anyone considering changing carriers — and perhaps paying a cheaper termination fee in the process — because of it?

UPDATE: Sprint has confirmed the change to Phone Scoop, meaning that smartphones and other "advanced devices" will be subject to a $350 ETF come September 9th. Sprint's full statement:

"Beginning September 9, Sprint is introducing a new pro-rated policy for ETFs for customers purchasing advanced devices such as smartphones, tablets, notebooks and netbooks. Customers with these advanced devices will be subject to a $350 ETF, which will be pro-rated based on the number of months remaining, should they decide to cancel service before the end of their service agreement."

Via SprintFeed, Phone Scoop