SOLVED! Help with Virgin iPhone Showing Sim Locked

HP_John wrote: ↑ Thought since phone is sold unlocked that none of this would be necessary. Does anyone have any input? Is my thought correct about having active Virgin or Bell sim? Thanks for the help

audit13 wrote: ↑I don't understand how the phone can be network locked since phones have not been sold with carrier locks for years.

VivienM wrote: ↑ That is not technically true - phones continue to be sold with carrier locks in 3-year-corporate land. I have a lovely locked-to-Bell iPhone 11 Pro Max that proves it...

audit13 wrote: ↑ It is the carrier that adds the iPhone's IMEI to Apple's whitelist database of unlocked phones.

ji2o0k wrote: ↑This isn't good for folks looking to resell BNIB Bell / VM iphones!

VivienM wrote: ↑ I think that's the entire point - they were worried about phones being stolen, etc in an unlocked state and being usable by the thieves.

I also wonder all of a sudden if this is how they deal with the corporate 3-year-land phones being locked, i.e. maybe they're not actually different except that if you put a SIM tied to a 3-year corporate line, the phone doesn't unlock itself?

ji2o0k wrote: ↑ This isn't good for folks looking to resell BNIB Bell / VM iphones!

ji2o0k wrote: ↑ I just asked and the same procedure applies to these corp phones.

There was a brief period of time where Corp phones were sold locked but this stopped over a year ago, and any recently purchased Corp iPhone would unlock the same as any consumer iPhone would (i.e. active Bell sim required).

hackoder wrote: ↑ I think the solution is to include an activated prepaid VM sim with the transaction

HP_John wrote: ↑ My brother got a iPhone 11 Pro Max from Virgin, sealed. Sold to someone, who later says the phone is showing sim locked (person did not test out phone before buying, said it was a gift for his sister so wanted to keep it sealed). Confirmed it is not blacklisted in any way. Called Virgin, said their system does show the phone is unlocked, said need to put in a Virgin or Bell sim into the phone first, then later remove & put a different carrier sim into the phone.

Person says they did this, though they didn't have a "active" Virgin sim, meaning they bought a Virgin sim from Dollarama that didn't have a phone number or account associated with it. They tried to put that in first, then remove & put different carrier. I'm guessing my brother will need to use his active Virgin sim for the iPhone, then remove it & put in a different carrier sim after? This has kind of turned out to be a big hassle. Thought since phone is sold unlocked that none of this would be necessary. Does anyone have any input? Is my thought correct about having active Virgin or Bell sim? Thanks for the help

samer12345 wrote: ↑ here in egypt, there is a guy is going to sell iphone 13 to me but he told me that virgin iphone that he brought from canada is locked until he insert virgin's sim for the first time only in this iphone to activate it then the iphone will be unlocked and able to insert any different local sim in egypt.
is it true ?
and the iphone after that will be totally unlocked for any other sim for the rest of life ?

HP_John wrote: ↑ I can only share this experience:

As it turns out, once my brother's Virgin sim was put in, the phone worked right away. Took the virgin sim out, put a different carrier sim & it worked without having to restart the phone or anything. Read on another forum that its not just an active sim that is required, but specifically the sim that is tied to the account that the phone was purchased from.

If you buy from him, make sure he puts in the Virgin sim, then take out the Virgin sim & test it with an Egyptian sim to make sure.

samer12345 wrote: ↑ With your brother the phone id unlocked and able to read any other carrier for the rest of life even if for example he factory reset the iphone or “ delete this iphone “
In those cases doesn’t require a virgin sim again and restart the process ?!