Can tracfone prevent my new unlocked MOTO G4 Play from upgrading Android 6.0.1 to 7.0?

[Android Central Question]

I have a new unlocked MOTO G4 Play phone. It came with Android 6.0.1 installed and Motorola says it will upgrade to Nougat 7.0, but of course they don't know when. I will be activating this with Tracfone to replace my older LG smartphone. But I have heard that Tracfone doesn't allow Android upgrades. So my question is, if I activate this phone with Tracfone, is there a way they can prevent my Moto G4 from receiving the Nougat 7.0 when it becomes available? Or should I hold off on activating it until Motorola "someday" gets around to upgrading?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I doubt that Tracfone would prevent an unlocked phone from getting a system update pushed by the phone manufacturer. Those can be done over wi-fi, so technically it could be done in Airplane Mode (i.e., with the cell radio turned off), but with wi-fi turned on.

It's true that phones that are sold by Tracfone themselves will typically not get any system updates, since it would be up to the carrier to modify and then approve the code for the updates -- but that doesn't mean they'll block updates sent directly by the phone manufacturer.