About a month ago, I went to the United States for a week of travel. I stumbled upon a deal that seems too good to passion, a brand-new iPhone 13 for $199. It was locked to TracFone. I know it won't work with any carrier beside total wireless or stright talk, so I’d just bought the world’s most powerful iPod Touch. But this gets me wonder, is there any way to bypass the carrier lock and use this "budget" find on a Canadian network?
Let's talk the iPhone 13 in 2026's perspective. iPhone 13 is quickly approaching 5 years old, released during COVID pandemic, it is a regular update to regular iPhone line up. iPhone 13 carries iPhone 12's design language, with exception of diagonal camera lens. This is last generation of iPhone that includes SIM card tray (at least in USA), and the SIM card try is very handy for what I will do later on.
The A15 is very power back then and it is continuing to throw punch in 2026. A15 handles everyday tasks very well and it holds very well in 2026. iPhone 13 is pretty cheap now days and it is a good entry point for many light users. If you are able to find a decent shaped iPhone 13 for a reasonable price, I still think iPhone 13 can last for at least 2-3 years.
Camera wise, iPhone 13 start to show its ages. iPhone 13 still use old 12MP camera on its main and wide-angle camera. On the day with good lighting, photo comes very well.
Trees on his photo has lot all the details on edge.
Back in Canada, inserting my local SIM resulted in the dreaded "SIM Not Supported" activation screen. This happens because the phone's IMEI is registered in Apple’s activation database as "Policy Locked" to TracFone. The unfortunate part is that Verizon updated the SIM unlocking policy from 60 days to full years with active services. So it is highly unlikely this phone will ever be unlocked. So what if I want to use this iPhone 13 in Canada for data or as back up phone?
The solution is R-SIM.
R-SIM is one of many SIM Interposers available on the market. The particular one I got was called WellSIM which I purchased on Aliexpress.
The R-SIM acts as a "man-in-the-middle" between your SIM card and the iPhone’s baseband processor. It uses a specialized exploit—often involving the IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) or the ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier)—to trick the iPhone into thinking the inserted SIM belongs to the original carrier (TracFone). --- This is directly from Google Gemini.
The WellSIM is a very thin plastic contain a small chip, it attaches with SIM card. Once I insert my SIM card with WellSIM attached to it, with very little setup, the iPhone 13 connects to local tower.
However, this post is not for advertising WellSIM nor encouraging anyone to go buy locked phone. Please remember, buying $199 prepaid iPhone from Straight Talk or Total Wireless without activating phone plan is totally legal. Using R-SIM to walk around SIM restriction is also perfectly legal. This can be useful for someone who purchased SIM-locked iPhone accidentally and for someone who is looking for absolute best deal.
Using SIM Interposer comes with its own risk:
1) You might experience activation required message from time to time, especially if iPhone lost reception and reconnect to cell tower. This is normal few years ago with ICCID unlocking. Currently, QPE mode or MEP mode usually works fine.
2) Using SIM Interposer requires some setup. Especially for QPE mode, because you need a dummy eSIM for this mode to work. A
3) A physical SIM card is required. Therefore, unless you can find someone who is willing to machine your iPhone 14+ and install SIM card reader, this method will not work for any iPhone 14 and up. You might still able to get locked International variant of iPhone which contains SIM card reader, but I don't think it worth a while.
In nutshell, this is more or less a fun experiment for me.
Let's talk the iPhone 13 in 2026's perspective. iPhone 13 is quickly approaching 5 years old, released during COVID pandemic, it is a regular update to regular iPhone line up. iPhone 13 carries iPhone 12's design language, with exception of diagonal camera lens. This is last generation of iPhone that includes SIM card tray (at least in USA), and the SIM card try is very handy for what I will do later on.
The A15 is very power back then and it is continuing to throw punch in 2026. A15 handles everyday tasks very well and it holds very well in 2026. iPhone 13 is pretty cheap now days and it is a good entry point for many light users. If you are able to find a decent shaped iPhone 13 for a reasonable price, I still think iPhone 13 can last for at least 2-3 years.
Camera wise, iPhone 13 start to show its ages. iPhone 13 still use old 12MP camera on its main and wide-angle camera. On the day with good lighting, photo comes very well.
But in a dark environment, photo become kind of grainy.Trees on his photo has lot all the details on edge.
Back in Canada, inserting my local SIM resulted in the dreaded "SIM Not Supported" activation screen. This happens because the phone's IMEI is registered in Apple’s activation database as "Policy Locked" to TracFone. The unfortunate part is that Verizon updated the SIM unlocking policy from 60 days to full years with active services. So it is highly unlikely this phone will ever be unlocked. So what if I want to use this iPhone 13 in Canada for data or as back up phone?
The solution is R-SIM.
R-SIM is one of many SIM Interposers available on the market. The particular one I got was called WellSIM which I purchased on Aliexpress.
The R-SIM acts as a "man-in-the-middle" between your SIM card and the iPhone’s baseband processor. It uses a specialized exploit—often involving the IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) or the ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier)—to trick the iPhone into thinking the inserted SIM belongs to the original carrier (TracFone). --- This is directly from Google Gemini.
The WellSIM is a very thin plastic contain a small chip, it attaches with SIM card. Once I insert my SIM card with WellSIM attached to it, with very little setup, the iPhone 13 connects to local tower.
How well does it work? I have been using this iPhone 13 as my daily driver for two weeks now，I haven’t experienced a single single drop nor has the dreaded "Activation Required" screen popped up even once. The stability has been rock-solid. Software update can be installed normally without messing up cell reception.However, this post is not for advertising WellSIM nor encouraging anyone to go buy locked phone. Please remember, buying $199 prepaid iPhone from Straight Talk or Total Wireless without activating phone plan is totally legal. Using R-SIM to walk around SIM restriction is also perfectly legal. This can be useful for someone who purchased SIM-locked iPhone accidentally and for someone who is looking for absolute best deal.
Using SIM Interposer comes with its own risk:
1) You might experience activation required message from time to time, especially if iPhone lost reception and reconnect to cell tower. This is normal few years ago with ICCID unlocking. Currently, QPE mode or MEP mode usually works fine.
2) Using SIM Interposer requires some setup. Especially for QPE mode, because you need a dummy eSIM for this mode to work. A
3) A physical SIM card is required. Therefore, unless you can find someone who is willing to machine your iPhone 14+ and install SIM card reader, this method will not work for any iPhone 14 and up. You might still able to get locked International variant of iPhone which contains SIM card reader, but I don't think it worth a while.
In nutshell, this is more or less a fun experiment for me.
Last edited:
