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Sent iPhone 3GS 8GB to niece in Turkey

M

Meandmine

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2013
3
0
Hi ,
We had 2 old IPhone 3GS 8gb, that we had Unlocked with our provider here in the US (AT&T) for free since they were out of contract and we had the new 5's.. So our thought was to give them to our nieces in Turkey so they could use them...

Before we took them to Turkey, I did a factory reset on the phone through ITunes, to delete all our information and apps... The phone went back to the home page of setting up a new phone, choosing your language and country and everything, so I thought it was ready for them in Turkey...

Now they have them and can connect to the Internet and apps and play games on the phone but they can't use the phone for calling or receiving calls.. Their SIM card says Inactive... I have checked the IMEI, and it states Unlocked, the Activation Status is Activated, and it states it's Registered...

In all the research I have done they should be able to just put their TURK SIM card in and the phone should start to make and receive calls... Can someone please shed light on what I should tell them to do.. please note I am not a phone techie' so please use very easy and straight forward steps or I may be asking a million more questions...

Please start at the beginning, if they need to connect to ITunes, first then reset or something, or cut sim or get different sim, please let me know the step by step process so I can relay it to them..

Thank you all for your help!!!
Thanks
 
B

Baggio

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2012
442
1
Try a different SIM card. Inactive SIM sounds like a SIM card that has not been activated on the carrier network or has expired from non-use. Does this SIM work in another phone? If so, you might have to manually install carrier settings.

You can do this on the phone on wifi by going to http://www.unlockit.co.nz/ and select the carrier of the SIM.
 
M

Meandmine

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2013
3
0
Sim card is coming from their Samsung phones and works fine when in their old phones, but when in the iPhone it says no service available.

When we were there in Turkey, we had to go to the bank pay tax on the phone since it was from the USA, then we went to the carrier and and had to show our US passports to register a out of country phone, then paid about 80 USD to have the sim card activated they said it would work in2 days... This was 2 weeks ago, the wifi works, they can use apps on the phone, access iTunes , but can not make calls or receive calls.... I'm lost since I don't know what else to suggest to them, to get the phones working and we are back in the US now.

** also tried different SIM card still no service available.
 
B

Baggio

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2012
442
1
Have the tried resetting the network settings? That might fix the problem. Be advised it will erase the wifi networks as well, so they will have to log back into their wifi after the reset.
 
Vinamra

Vinamra

macrumors regular
Nov 21, 2012
187
1
Melbourne, Australia
Meandmine said:
Hi ,
We had 2 old IPhone 3GS 8gb, that we had Unlocked with our provider here in the US (AT&T) for free since they were out of contract and we had the new 5's.. So our thought was to give them to our nieces in Turkey so they could use them...

Before we took them to Turkey, I did a factory reset on the phone through ITunes, to delete all our information and apps... The phone went back to the home page of setting up a new phone, choosing your language and country and everything, so I thought it was ready for them in Turkey...

Now they have them and can connect to the Internet and apps and play games on the phone but they can't use the phone for calling or receiving calls.. Their SIM card says Inactive... I have checked the IMEI, and it states Unlocked, the Activation Status is Activated, and it states it's Registered...

In all the research I have done they should be able to just put their TURK SIM card in and the phone should start to make and receive calls... Can someone please shed light on what I should tell them to do.. please note I am not a phone techie' so please use very easy and straight forward steps or I may be asking a million more questions...

Please start at the beginning, if they need to connect to ITunes, first then reset or something, or cut sim or get different sim, please let me know the step by step process so I can relay it to them..

Thank you all for your help!!!
Thanks
Click to expand...

Turkey has a policy of registering the IMEI numbers of all 'foreign' phones entering the country. The government associates the IMEI number with the phone number of the user. Simply put, the iPhones you've sent to Turkey MUST be registered with the Turkish government. No hard reset, connecting to iTunes and all that fancy stuff will work. I spent 6 months in Turkey and had to get my iPhone 4 registered before being able to use it (Make calls, send messages, use cellular data, etc). I wrote an article about Turkey on my blog and the link for the same can be found in my signature over here.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask if you have any doubt.
 
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