Cannot activate new iPhone on Verizon

I took my phone to the Apple store for battery issues, and they swapped it out with a new one. They tried to activate the new one in the store but the same error message kept popping up: "Could Not Activate iPhone." Below it reads "Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server cannot be reached." The kept trying for close to an hour. Took me up to the Verizon store; they tried but received the same error message. Went back down to the Apple store, they swapped out another phone, and we still got the same error message. They claim that it's a problem with the Verizon network. I've been trying for over an hour since I brought the phone back home to no avail. Can anyone be of assistance?

 

UPDATE:

Restored it. Now it says "Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable."