Purcased an Unlocked Galaxy S9 (my original Carrier SIM still asking to Unlock SIM)

[android_freak1]

I recently purchased a Galaxy S9 phone here in Europe from a tech shop and my original SIM card was issued by T-Mobile using their SIM card for quite a while now even with previous phones in the past.

I even emailed the Tech shop and asked them numerous times if the phone is Unlocked or not, and they said Yes, its Unlocked and I even paid full price of the phone for about $750.

Now when I first powered up the phone after inserting my original issued carrier's SIM card, how come it still ask me to enter my 4-digit SIM unlock code?

As mentioned before, I needed to enter this SIM unlock code with all the phones I owned in the past purchased from other different mobile shops here in Europe.

I had read that for instance, when travelling to the USA with a Unlocked phone and inserting a local US SIM (from a different carrier), you will not be greeted to enter a PIN to unlock the SIM.

So how come whenever I insert my original Provider's SIM card to my phone, I am greeted to enter my 4 digit SIM PIN code.

 

[Almeuit]

Now when I first powered up the phone after inserting my original issued carrier's SIM card, how come it still ask me to enter my 4-digit SIM unlock code?

Because it isn't unlocked -- the shop is wrong. Phones being locked is purely the phone -- the SIM itself isn't ever locked.

 

[Risky_KillMoves]

I have a US Unlocked S9+ and I'm in Germany using Vodafone, however every time I restart my phone it always asks for the unlock code for the sim and it has for the last two unlocked devices I've had (HTC 10 and S8). That is simply a security protocol for European carriers due to roaming across several different countries and not facing EU traffis from my understanding but totally normal.

Stateside is different with its security settings which a lot of it is done within the software that downloaded and the IMEI is known to the carrier so it isn't needed to ask for a sim code when restarted it's identified with the IMEI that isn't done in Europe. So typically stateside when you go from one carrier to the next you would call the former carrier of the change so that the IMEI number is "released" so to speak and identified by the new carrier.

 

[android_freak1]

I am confusing myself here.

I guess I would be referring to the SIM PIN code and not some other Unlock codes.

I powered off my phone just now and powered ON again and asked me to enter the SIM Card Unlock PIN.

Is this still the case with Unlocked phones to ask for the SIM PIN code?

I guess I was confusing this with Network Unlock.

So, even if a phone is Unlocked, it would still require me to enter the SIM PIN to unlock the SIM card?

I am such a dummy at this, and I am sorry...