Used to be that you had to call after 60 days for Verizon to unlock your
subsidized phones. Apparently that's no longer the case. I had bought a
Total Wireless Pixel 6a at Walmart for $199.00. Yesterday I received a
text message: "Carrier lock removed The device can now be used on any
network."

Visible by Verizon charges $349 for the Pixel 6a.

--
“If you are not an expert on a subject, then your opinions about it
really do matter less than the opinions of experts. It's not
indoctrination nor elitism. It's just that you don't know as much as
they do about the subject.”—Tin Foil Awards

sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote

> Used to be that you had to call after 60 days for Verizon to unlock your
> subsidized phones. Apparently that's no longer the case. I had bought a
> Total Wireless Pixel 6a at Walmart for $199.00. Yesterday I received a
> text message: "Carrier lock removed The device can now be used on any
> network."
>
> Visible by Verizon charges $349 for the Pixel 6a.

This is good information as we all know it used to be a pain in the butt to
unlock any device which was previously locked - no matter which carrier.

I will note my free handful of T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy A32-5G phones (which
Steve clued me in on years ago) were automatically unlocked by the carrier.
<https://i.postimg.cc/NMcttY2s/networkunlock01.jpg>

Speaking of locks that shouldn't exist, on my iPad I never logged out of my
AppleID for years, and yet about two or three years ago Apple insisted I
log in, proving what I was told - which is that Apple _forces_ periodic
logins into the Apple mothership tracking servers.

Only today did I finally break down and visit Apple Support to have them
_unlock_ my iPad so that I could use it (after years of not being able to).

I had to prove who I was... and then they unlocked my account - where I had
to log in using the same login/password (and security questions) that were
set up in the beginning years ago when the iPad was first initialized.

Note these facts:
a. I never logged out of my AppleID
b. The login/passwd credentials were always good
c. Yet I refused to log into the Apple servers periodically

So Apple _unilaterally_ locked me out.
There was no way to log in.

Interestingly, half the iPad worked and half failed to work in that I could
update the iOS version and install apps from the app store; but I couldn't
re-install apps (because they went to the iCloud) and I couldn't use the
Apple apps that people love which only work by logging into Apple servers
every second of your life (e.g., messages, facetime, etc.).

For details, please sett this thread on the Apple newsgroups...
*Apple finally let me log into my own iPad to use it*
*(after years of holding my AppleID hostage)*
<https://groups.google.com/g/misc.phone.mobile.iphone/c/wrqMIO5eLzg>