iPhone 3G S Customers Reporting Activation Delays

I am trying to do the 'wife hand-me-down' operation, so we'll see how it turns out.

I got the 3GS at 3PM and immediately tried to activate using her number (she currently has a 2G phone on our family plan, but I opted - stupidly - to activate with the new SIM and new phone. Got the 'This may take a while' message.

Being impatient, and since I planned to switch them anyway, I popped my 3G SIM in and it activated immediately.

Put the new SIM into my 3g (which the wife will be taking to replace her 2G) and it's still saying "Activation - this may take some time".

Her 2G with her original SIM continues to work just fine.

SO, will it activate despite being in the 'wrong' phone? Should I just put her SIM in the 3G so we're both 'all set' with our 'new' devices?
 
bbrosemer said:
Did you do it through apple or ATT ... they are both driving me crazy I am really getting mad with both of them ... They sent me the right phone with the wrong number... Att says it is apple's fault apple says its att's fault ... together I am getting nothing done and they are both pushing this... and really bothering me..

So ATT tells me to put the sim from my old 3g into the new ... doesn't work ... apple tells me not to do that ... and to call att to transfer the # but the # is associated with the phone apparently because when I switch sims the phone does nothing different ... This is getting to be reallllly annoying ...
Click to expand...

iTunes. Didn't have to talk to a single person, or switch a SIM card.
 
bastula said:
This worked a charm. Was sitting around waiting for about 2 hours and just tried it. Worked instantaneously. Thank you! :p
Click to expand...

Worked for me too.
Also called the store I bought it from as the tech there said it was due to overloaded ATT network from activations, and they didn't know about this fix but were happy to hear it.
 
Took two hours to activate with ATT. Even though I didn't like that, it is understandable with so many starting at once. Mine came UPS via Apple. It was an upgrade from my first generation. Everything went quickly from my Mac but then it said waiting to activate... may take time. After an hour or so I went over to a nearby ATT Store (which was packed). Everyone was nice and helpful and they said it might take several hours and then all of a sudden. I was activated!!!!
 
No probs

Mine activated in seconds of being plugged into the dock. It's a bummer that AT&T and Apple can't get this sorted out. It causes huge problems for so many people and really takes the shine of the launch.
 
Bought mine this morning at an apple store and had no issues whatsoever (except maybe the hour wait to get in, with a reservation).

New iPhone owner; I just switched from Verizon and ported my #.
 
New to Apple & iPhone. New to AT&T

Hello MAC & APPLE friends!

I switched from my T-Mobile account over to a brand new AT&T account and although it wasn't a flawless transition, my iPhone 3G S was activated by the time I got home to plug it into my iTunes. Not too bad of a delay.

I pre-ordered my White 32GB last Tuesday and they've kept me updated with the location of my device via email. Now, I could have gone into the store at 7am, but I worked until 11am. Lucky for me, I had mine reserved and it just needed me to show up and present my ID.

Of course I bought an Apple Care Plan, but it was so easy just switching over. NOW comes the hassle of paying Prorated Phone bills through 2 companies. But I think it is well worth it.

Christian
 
Update

It is a problem on Apple's end not ATT ... I repeat apple ... messed mine up ... the phone # is tied to either the UDID or Serial by apple prior to shipping the phone ... so now I can not try to activate a phone that does not have my number ...
 
Seems like this is not simply a problem with overloaded itunes servers, but some technical problem having to do with activating the new sim for people who are switching phones.

There are number of people including myself who where able to activate the phone very soon after swapping sims with their old phone.
 
javaGuru said:
I started the activation process about 4 hours ago. How long has everyone else been waiting?
Click to expand...

I waited about 3 hours, then called AT&T and they immediately sent the activation while I was on the phone with them. This was using the new SIM in the new phone.
 
diabolic said:
Yes, because Verizon would somehow magically be able to handle the activation process better than AT&T can...

I doubt any other carrier has ever had to handle as many activations in one day as AT&T does with the iPhone.
Click to expand...

I agree that this activation thing as being a thing of numbers. If there was more than one iPhone carrier in the US then there would be less of a problem.

Unless Verizon does a 180 in the way they do their business, a Verizon iPhone would have use of only 5-105 of its features. Some more could be purchased as very high rates for the service they provide. This is my feelings of my probably 8 year or more carrier Verizon.
 
oncdoc said:
Seems like this is not simply a problem with overloaded itunes servers, but some technical problem having to do with activating the new sim for people who are switching phones.

There are number of people including myself who where able to activate the phone very soon after swapping sims with their old phone.
Click to expand...

Why did you swap the sim ?
I just left the sim that came with it. Took less than 2 minutes.
 
diabolic said:
I waited about 3 hours, then called AT&T and they immediately sent the activation while I was on the phone with them. This was using the new SIM in the new phone.
Click to expand...

I tried to call them earlier and they said they were told not to activate them manually and doing so would slow the process down for everyone else. I think I'm going to call them back now.
 
If you have an iPhone 3G use the sim card from that phone

I upgraded from an iPhone 3G to an iPhone 3G s. When it arrived in the mail I plugged in and activated to iTunes and received the 48 hours for activation BS.

So I waited like 20 mins and then just took the sim from my old iphone (iphone 3G) and stuck it in my new iphone 3G s and it worked immediately. I think the 48 hour activation BS is for customers who are new to the iphone.
 
Activation delay...

I actually just bought my iPhone 3GS about 45 minutes ago. Wasn't activating after about 15 minutes. Then I turned my iPhone 2G off, restartd the 3GS, and it was activated. They did tell me at the Apple Store that it could possibly take up to 48 hours, though. Syncing now...
 
I waited two hours for my phone to activate i had tried cycling power but still a nogo. then i plugged it into my computer and after it restored the phone and reset it i was activated and good to go :)
 
After 5 hours of no activation (including many reboots and other tomfoolery) I just caved and switched out SIMs from my 3G. Instantly got an activated 3G S.

Dunno if there will be a technical problem over this later, but if so I stuck my new SIM back in the box and now I'm off to enjoy my 3G S!!
 
shoebobs said:
bummer for those having issues activating.

I activated mine at about 11:30 Seattle time and it literally took 15 seconds. I was surprised as I'm a new customer porting my number over from Verizon. Figured the port would hold it up but it went extremely fast
Click to expand...

I activated mine at about 11.55 Seattle time and it only took a couple of minutes
 
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