Can I unlock a prepaid iPhone SE bought from Target?

Target has a Simple Mobile iPhone SE for $139. Can I buy the iPhone and activate it using the simple mobile SIM, then pay a 3rd party unlocking company to unlock the phone? Can companies put permanent locks on devices for a specified amount of time? Or can it be unlocked anytime?

Read the unlocking terms on simple mobiles website

Simple Mobile is part of the Tracfone cellular companies. Their unlock policy REQUIRES you to have service for 12 months OR pay a fee that Simple Mobile deems reasonable for non-subscribers. The phone also must not have been reported as lost, stolen OR used in any fraudulent activity.

The main reason why the iPhone is locked to the carrier is that they're providing the phone at a SUBSIDIZED PRICE with the agreement that you'll use the phone exclusive with them for specified time frame, as the FULL RETAIL PRICE (as noted by Apple) is $349. In short, you're getting the phone for $210 LESS than retail, but you're agreeing to paying at least $300 in services over 12 months (w/ the $25 minimum plan).

For iPhones, it's the carrier's system that has to contact Apple's systems to approve the unlock before Apple releases the unlock code / key. Please be aware that in order to unlock an iPhone, you will need to connect the phone to a computer online with iTunes & do a back-up (if you want to retain the contents of the phone) & restore to factory settings. Upon doing the factory reset via iTunes, the computer will contact Apple's servers (which, in turn, checks with the carrier) that it can be unlocked & automatically provides the unlock key with any updates they send to the phone.

The unlock process is pretty standard for all iPhones for all carriers that lock their phones.