[tobeychris]

Changing ROMs is not required for a phone to work on any other network. Everything you've mentioned can be done with the sprint stock ROM, activesync, a text editor, and if you want, you can use QPST to change the banner.

Changing ROMs is very beneficial at the same time. It also requires much less intelligence in order to do things, but EPST settings are not always that easy.

I answered that it is not required, and it's not. Change the EPST settings and activate it, then you're done. The rest is user experience and preference.