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I was using my iPhone 4 and suddenly I got 'No Service'. Great. But then I went to activate the 4s again and it went through likity split. Restoring from backup now :)
 
Can you just switch SIMs?

If you have an iPhone 4, can you simply take your micro SIM out and put it in the iPhone 4S, then hook it to iTunes. There should be no AT&T activation involved there.
Then go back later tomorrow or something and activate the new micro SIM (so it'll update AT&T's order database.) You do need to activate the new SIM (otherwise you have to make calls to AT&T until you can get a hold of someone who knows WTF they're doing) but I believe in the mean time you can use your old one.

Of course once you switch SIMs, I have no idea how to spawn the activation process for the new SIM. So perhaps my way is more complicated.

(I don't have my 4S yet.)
 
If you have an iPhone 4, can you simply take your micro SIM out and put it in the iPhone 4S, then hook it to iTunes. There should be no AT&T activation involved there.
Then go back later tomorrow or something and activate the new micro SIM (so it'll update AT&T's order database.) You do need to activate the new SIM (otherwise you have to make calls to AT&T until you can get a hold of someone who knows WTF they're doing) but I believe in the mean time you can use your old one.

Of course once you switch SIMs, I have no idea how to spawn the activation process for the new SIM. So perhaps my way is more complicated.

(I don't have my 4S yet.)

Lots of people are reporting that you can't do this. When you put your old sim it needs to activate also.
 
I went to my local AT&T store and they got apple on the line. Apple admitted it wad an Apple server issue. Customers picking up at at&t had no trouble. Ordered mine from Apple and still haven't been able to activate...
 
How do you activate the phone on the network?

I turned mine on, went through the iPhone setup, connected to iTunes, and never saw any mention of activating the phone with AT&T

Some of us are having the same problem. My phone never asked either. Now I'm stuck at no service and iTunes keeps telling me my info is invalid.
 
Yay! 3 1/2 hours later I am finally up and running. I had to keep 'trying again' until it eventually asked me to setup my iPhone. I was using wifi. :D
 
just got it activated after three hours! hang in there. i tried a bunch of times no the phone and in iTunes. the final successful try was through iTunes.
 
FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU haha trying to activate it at work.. picked it up at lunch. I WANNA USE IT!
 
just got it activated after three hours! hang in there. i tried a bunch of times no the phone and in iTunes. the final successful try was through iTunes.

4 hours and probably 100+ "try again"'s later....finally up and running.

Where are you guys located..... Im still trying about 3 hours into myself.... still no good......

I have tried both on the phone and trough iTunes.....
 
For the ones who got it activated - did you keep trying after you got the "we will email you when its activated" message?
 
Was there any "trick" to your success? Or just got lucky finally?

i scrolled through the terms & conditions several trys ago hoping for some good karma ;)

other than that...just persistence... typing my info in over and over and over.... and over.
 
The message states that the activation is pending, and I will receive an email once activation is complete. The next line says there was a problem connecting to the server, and to try again later.

What kind of retard wrote this? Will it activate on its own, or do I need to keep trying??

I think that the first part was the "planned" response to high volume. The second line was added to say, "oh noes, we can't really do what we just said we would."

I've had to do this. Not enough time to change how things work but do want to get a message out about what's going on.

Read it like this, "I'm going to send you chocolate! Sorry, there was a problem so please try again later." Do you think you're getting chocolate?

I agree that it's worded poorly - just saying that you should keep trying. You ain't getting no email. =)
 
wow...almost 4hrs in and I got it. Mine was on the phone, past three minutes. Restoring from backup to stay away from the servers for now!
 
Premier (business) Business account and Unlimited user here. After being on the phone with AT&T in three different departments for the last 3 hours since I got my phone AND Apple for the last hour I have the following news/information to share.

1.) If you can get through to AT&T representative they can activate your SIM card in THEIR servers by giving them the IMEI/MEID and the ICCID on the back of your box. Your old phone will be deactivated at this point but everything that needs to occur on the AT&T side will have occured.

2.) If you have an unlimited plan and you ordered though the Apple website like I did then the ulmited data plan was coded into AT&T's systems differently than they should have been coded. It needs to be "changed to the correct code" but you will still have Unlimited Data Packages with your iPhone 4S if you had one before.

3.) I was told by an APPLE rep who had just talked to a "Senior Management" that the problem with AT&T customers lies not with AT&T servers but the Activation server with Apple via Itunes. He went on to say that Sprint and Verizon have thier own activation servers with "itunes" and they aren't experiancing the load that the AT&T servers are.

4.) with regard to waiting for the email or trying to activate the Apple employee said to continue trying to activate and not wait for the email. He said the email would be generated once you successfully get your phone activated though trying. LOL!

I think it's probably unnecessary to have to call ATT like I did to get your SIM information activated in their servers unless you are an unlimited data plan user. Then you might need to call in advance and make sure you are "Coded" correctly. The big issue here seems to be getting past the "itunes activation server" for AT&T but is hosted and operated by Apple.
 
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