Your information is a bit confused. VZW does not lock their phones. Moreover, CDMA phones aren't locked in the same way as GSM phones. A CDMA phone can be subsidy locked, preventing you from activating it on another CDMA carrier, but it's not the same as locking a GSM phone. GSM phones use SIM cards, and except for the iPhone, GSM phones don't need to be activated; only the SIM card needs to be activated. That said, if a GSM phone is locked and you get it unlocked, all you have to do is pop in your SIM card and go. CDMA phones, however, need to be activated by the carrier, so even if the phone is not locked you need the carrier to activate it. It's not as simple as putting in a SIM card, because, for one, CDMA phone generally do not use SIM cards or even have a SIM slot. Only CDMA world phones use SIM cards and most of these phones can be used only on international GSM networks.
Lastly, most VZW phones do not have a SIM slot, so you couldn't put a SIM card into their phones anyway. You also have to remember that VZW uses CDMA and, in general, phones that use SIM cards are GSM devices. GSM and CDMA are different and incompatible technologies. I hope that helps and doesn't just add to the confusion.
