Can't activate iphone 4s

D

dazzazzad

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My dad just got a 4s that was still boxed. He switched his number from prepaid Vodacom to CellC (because we tested and found roaming with Vodacom working, so finally we have the option to go with CellC) and got the message that the CellC sim is ready.

However when booting up the iphone for the first time it gets to the activation step and we get a "your iphone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable". Have tried a few times with no luck. It did find and connect to the wifi in the step prior and I did connect to my itunes as it suggests doing that with the error. No dice.

I'm wondering if one of these could be the problem...

1) There is a "searching..." top left. Could it be that the Cell C sim isn't fully operational yet. A text came through saying we had to load money to activate it, but we can't load the airtime unless we can get into the phone...

2) Or maybe it's struggling to pick up the signal and since we can't get into the options to find Vodacom by roaming...

3) Or maybe the phone is locked to Vodacom? They seller said this wasn't the case.

4) Maybe this just happens and their servers are busy?

Hope someone can help, my dad really needs a phone tomorrow and now that we have a micro sim we can't even put that into his old phone.
 
I did plug it in but nevermind, I jumped the gun. Even though the texts came in on the old sim saying welcome and all that jazz, I just saw that the old sim is still working. So obviously hasn't clicked over yet.
 
dabean said:
If it still doesn't work have a look at this thread: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/393175-Cell-C-and-iPhone-4s-problem

I had the same problem, ended up cutting a normal sim to size.
Click to expand...

Interesting, hopefully it doesn't get to that stage. My dad says his phone has no signal this morning which I assume means the port over is complete, however I'm still not able to activate his iphone. Should it read Cell C in the top left where it currently says searching, or do you only sort out your network after the activation?
 
It won't activate until it finds a network. Sounds like the sim card issue to me.
 
Could it be because of CellC's signal problems in the Cape combined with our area being notoriously bad when it comes to signal (we're going to roam with Vodacom which is the only signal that works well here).
 
The easiest way to test it is to try the microsim in another phone. Use the plastic pop-out the sim comes in to convert it to normal sim size. If it works it's not the signal.

The Cell C micro-sims with the problem work in the iPhone 4 but not the 4S. Hopefully their customer services know about it by now.
 
Problem solved. They had given my dad the iphone 4 sim and not the 4s one.
 
Dippybot said:
I may be mistaken but there isn't a difference between sim cards for 4 or 4s.
Click to expand...

It was definitely different. The card that the sim snaps off of was what clued her in and after I got the new one I could see the difference.
 
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