I am planning to send an iphone 5 from sprint, unlocking it first. If i were to report it stolen, what is sprint gonna do to the phone? If they were to , say, lock it, would it work in Nepal, since its unlocked and will be using a sim card for a different carrier? Any suggestions or experience.

Sprint's Motorola photon is global unlocked.you can use this phone with any carrier outside USA but not with t-mobile and ATT.

 i just got a Sprint 4s 16gig for $260 
looks like unlocking sprint/verizon 4s is a more expensive than unlocking an ATT. should i just have it unlocked in Nepal? where do you think it'll be cheaper to unlock? any takers here on sajha?

jantare, you can get the Sprint 4s unlocked through Sprint customer service. But not the regular customer service, you've to go through international call support representative. All you have to do is activate the device on any Sprint account and call them and tell them that you're travelling abroad so you want to get it unlocked. They'll submit the unlock request to Apple and tell you to restore the phone after couple hours. That's it and your phone will be unlocked. Good luck.

karnali blues, will they unlock iphone 5 likewise?

As of now I don't think so. But you can give a shot. As far as I know about iPhone 5, the sim card that's used on that device is way to smaller than that was used on 4s and that type of sim is not available in Nepal. But like I said you can give a shot. If I found out anything about unlocking iPhone 5, I sure will let you know.