Do you know how to unlock the SIM service?

2015-pre Verizon: They don't allow 3rd parties to make it easier to suck less so you only have two choices: 1 year of service, or pay for the code through TracFone (similar to T-Mo prepaid where giving them $100 does the job within 30/40 days, but you can only do it 2x a year) and likely more then the street value of the phones they sell. Sadly, the 1-year window (without a get-out-of-jail card) is becoming the norm, even with AT&T you HAVE to wait 6 months; I can't just throw them the money for a code or unlock whitelisting and get it done :(.
Even with the others, I have still run into problems with 3rd party unlock providers, especially AT&T who cracked down on it bc the FCC unlock exception cost them $1 too much in millions of dollars of profit at some point. T-Mobile has always been a PITA: Be a customer, or no 1st party unlock; then wait 1 year on prepaid, or pay a $100 troll toll. I had to pay the troll toll to free a P6a which was locked to them I bought for parts due to the "financed" status which never existed, it was free and clear.
Pre-2015: THESE ARE VERY, VERY OFTEN PERMANENTLY LOCKED TO TFW: Either through the use of all code entries at the factory being removed, or it's just blocked -- BY DESIGN! For CDMA phones, they don't provide the MSL which is needed to get it done. VoLTE phones are unusable on anything but the TFW network and group of providers.
NOTE: Non-VoLTE phones are no longer usable due to the US CDMA/3G shutdowns. This took these perma-locked phones out. This is a footnote for the subset of VoLTE phones which are permanently locked at this point. A NEW BOARD IS NEEDED TO REMOVE THE TFW SIM LOCK.
Verizon: 60 days, unless they accuse you of fraud; in which case, guilty until proven innocent.

See here for my experience with these new phones: AT&T unlock nightmare I got so annoyed by I shelved them and had to revisit after researching the problem

Depending on how long you've owned it, you're basically stuck with no other option but to call TracFone to get this done. They sometimes love charging up to $300 if they do it under 1 year which tends to make it cost-prohibitive due to how cheap an IDENTICAL UNLOCKED PHONE COSTS NOW, even with 5G. TracFone is a BYOD-only "carrier" (really, an MNVO who uses the big 3's network) which you take an unlocked phone to them, not buy a locked phone through. These are the kind of devices if say I needed a screen and charge port and I had a local connection with the Tracfone version willing to cut me a deal on a soft-bricked phone that they will not support (and the ROM isn't available, but my unlocked phone has it available so I can "fix the TFW phone" and kill the SIM lock with a new board) I'm making a cash deal and swapping my unlocked board (and SIM tray) into the "locked" TracFone. Bribery may be involved to get said phone, nudging them towards unlocked.
Their dead-end status makes gutting them the best ending, or modifying it with a better mainboard when you can. This sadly works as their main market is low-income customers, who can't buy a $699 Pixel and truly own their phone. They do not become aware of the problem until it hits them from behind, whereas I know bc I'm willing to take them and either board swap or pull another part I need from them if it's not junk. I buy factory unlocked for a reason; it stays mine, and can never be locked like the 1U Samsung which is the opposite: Hardlocked to not accept a subsidy lock. Their horrible status is why I will usually make a deal for the TFW version if I need a transplant device; can't be unlocked easily=cheap. Just throw the branded parts and back out if you can.

NOTE: Pre-2015 Sprint phones share the same problem as the pre-2015 TFW phones; not designed to be unlocked properly, especially early 5G devices (T-Mo shut their band down for 5G on early phones with the Sprint sunset; nobody wanted it besides Sprint). The other class is phones that are too old to bother with vs. the cost to get it done.

As much as I love cheap shells like TFW phones and I'm that friend who gets them, I hate the waste TracFone generates. I'd rather steer them toward an unlocked phone and lose the future donor phone when they can afford it! But if I got to keep the dead phone to make sure it gets erased and I have a phone which needs a new home due to something like a bad screen and charge port (and mine is clear due to being unlocked) take a guess how quickly it gets board swapped... I don't even care if it has FRP protection, I'm paying "FRP assumed" pricing and replacing the board if I know it can be done. Otherwise, I do not want it, or I will just scrap it (however, it's nice to get it reset normally so I can try and resell the board). On the other hand, why would I care when I'm just going to open it up and put a superior unlocked board in from a dead phone I used until it was worth more in scrap? The old board is "waste" to me because you can't put lipstick on the pig these pre-Verizon phones are. I do see the hypocrisy in me saying this since I basically gave T-Mobile $100 to unlock the 6a, but that phone is still very new. Never again. And yes, I will show up with a $700 Pixel or $1,500 iPhone paying scrap prices for them; it's better than nothing if you got screwed and need some quick cash to buy a phone that isn't locked to TFW.

Welp, time to invest in a new phone not under TracFone, and use my old one for something else, then. Thanks for telling me. — Jri-creator
@jri_creator Yeah I hate this kind of news but I've dealt with a lot of them except Sprint; even a local repair shop had trouble with AT&T's games. I've always binned Sprint phones due to the parts differential from the CDMA network causing poor screen interchangeability, or the SIM lock can't be removed without being a Sprint customer or a 3rd party that could figure it out. My Pixel 7 never had a carrier lock -- it's how it **SHOULD** have been done. I can toy with the network frequency at will, whereas the T-Mobile SKU looks at your SIM and restricts it. They cannot control my 7 and I absolutely love it :-) (except they flag it as a "non T-Mobile device", which I've called out as BS because my unlocked P7 is the same version they sell, but I own it and they can't control the cellular radio). Granted I paid up the nose to do that kind of thing, but it's scary how much they control with the ROM.

With T-Mobile in the picture, this will get more complicated later unless you get lucky and find a 3rd party service that can still figure it out -- and it isn't an early 5G phone crippled by the Sprint network shutdown.

Still worth a try to unlock it, but they might give you hell for it or try and charge you street value of an unlocked phone to SIM unlock an old prepaid phone. — Nick
I grew up before the CTIA agreement, and I remember when you had to be the account holder, there was no way to free them before that outside of a 3rd party. However, they've taken it upon themselves to make it a royal pain by choice. Even T-Mobile's policy is less than ideal because if someone has a low-end prepaid phone the 14-day/$100 policy is probably as much as the phone is worth and it's so low end it's not worth the hassle! And the phones like that 6a which were worth unlocking are unicorns that exist but you need to get lucky to land them (and hope they work with you and ignore the missing info if purchased used).

The 6a was a one-time deal since my decision to let these locked phones become eWaste thanks to AT&T and T-Mobile being an active burden. Never again. — Nick

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Do you know how to unlock the SIM service?

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