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AT&T Activation Issues w/ Pre orders

Z

z0n3x

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 9, 2008
35
0
I received my pre-ordered IPhone 4S today and to my utter dismay it wouldn't activate. Surprise! Tried iTunes, I tried the OTA activation and nothing.

I took it to my local Apple Store. The "geniuses" were stumped. They commented how the pre order phones were having similar problems in that activation wasnt working. However, they did mention that if I purchase through the store the activation works differently. So I asked for a swap and they wouldn't let me. I asked to return my phone and they wouldn't let me. I offered to buy a new one and my upgrade credit couldn't be re-applied.

Here I am 12 hours - phone is un-bricked but AT&T won't recognize my phone still.

While I realize patience is a virtue, I am very disappointed that this process isn't more seamless. Fool me once, fine. It's not like this is the first time this has happend. What happend to the good old days of just doing a sim swap on a GSM phone. Anyone having the same issue that didn't pre order?
 
I'm having the same issue, can't activate. iTunes or OTA.

I'm getting this message thru iTunes:

Your request couldn’t be processed.
We’re sorry, but there was an error processing your request. Please try again later.
 
What do you guys mean by "activate"? Like on AT&T's network? So your phone works now but it says "No Service"?

I activated my phone online at www.att.com/Activations and it worked instantly earlier today. My sister just set hers up about an hour ago and did the same thing and it worked fine.
 
It's really hit or miss. AT&T has more iPhone 4s activation's than any other carrier. The switches that complete these are just as good if not better than any other carrier, but when you have thousands of people trying to activate at the same time it's going to cause issues - it's like trying to cram 1,000 people into a room suitable for 200.
 
HXGuy said:
What do you guys mean by "activate"? Like on AT&T's network? So your phone works now but it says "No Service"?

I activated my phone online at www.att.com/Activations and it worked instantly earlier today. My sister just set hers up about an hour ago and did the same thing and it worked fine.
Click to expand...

In my case (Verizon 4S), I see signal strength bars, and the WiFi signal next to it, but there is no data indicator ("3G") and no carrier indicator, nor does it say "No service". Just nothing there. It's usable over WiFi, but cel data doesn't work and I can't make calls, except to Verizon via *228. So there is a connection there, but it's not working either. It appears my issue is that Verizon dropped my request to port 2 numbers. They never got ported and the network won't recognize them (they are still working on my older AT&T iPhones).
 
HXGuy said:
What do you guys mean by "activate"? Like on AT&T's network? So your phone works now but it says "No Service"?

I activated my phone online at www.att.com/Activations and it worked instantly earlier today. My sister just set hers up about an hour ago and did the same thing and it worked fine.
Click to expand...

I get the error message that "iPhones need to use iTunes for activation."
 
Mine wouldn't work on line but I called the activation phone line and it worked in minutes.
 
I had this problem porting 2 numbers last night from AT&T to Verizon. *288 would not activate the phone and the porting request wasn't showing up on the Verizon website. However, this morning, dialed *288 and both phones activated with no problem. So, just an annoying glitch I guess (guessing the heavy load brought down a server somewhere).

Signal indicator shows a much stronger signal on the new 4S phones as well. We had an old original iPhone and an iPhone 3G on AT&T, they both showed 2 bars. The new 4S Verizon phones vary between 4 and 5 bars in the same location (home), so that's great so far. Having a weak signal and getting dropped calls at home (where I probably make 80%+ of my calls) is really annoying.

:)
 
HiRez said:
I had this problem porting 2 numbers last night from AT&T to Verizon. *288 would not activate the phone and the porting request wasn't showing up on the Verizon website. However, this morning, dialed *288 and both phones activated with no problem. So, just an annoying glitch I guess (guessing the heavy load brought down a server somewhere).

Signal indicator shows a much stronger signal on the new 4S phones as well. We had an old original iPhone and an iPhone 3G on AT&T, they both showed 2 bars. The new 4S Verizon phones vary between 4 and 5 bars in the same location (home), so that's great so far. Having a weak signal and getting dropped calls at home (where I probably make 80%+ of my calls) is really annoying.

:)
Click to expand...

Not to be a pesimist but it has been said that they can just adjust the software to make the bars higher for a weaker signal. There was a lot of talk on these forums about this when the Iphone 4 had the hand on antenna problem. On the brighter side lets hope the new antenna design works better.
 
phaggard said:
Not to be a pesimist but it has been said that they can just adjust the software to make the bars higher for a weaker signal. There was a lot of talk on these forums about this when the Iphone 4 had the hand on antenna problem. On the brighter side lets hope the new antenna design works better.
Click to expand...

It's true, the number of bars shown can be deceiving. But so far the 3G seems very solid around town on Verizon, haven't dropped a call yet (typically would have with AT&T), voice quality is very good, and the data speed, while not blazing, is snappy enough for web surfing and is consistent (with AT&T I got faster speeds when I had a good connection, but it was maddeningly inconsistent, frequently freezing mid-way through a page load and dropping down to Edge or no signal at all on the edge of town). So far, so good with Verizon, but it will take some time to get a more accurate picture.
 
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