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Well, I called AT&T when my phone wasn't activating and the CSR was helpful, got my IMEI number and was attempting to activate it for me... well this of course caused my old phone (which I was using to call - no landline or other phone available for me) to lose service and disconnect. Now my new one won't activate either, so I am phone-less and just waiting it out I guess.

HA!

WELCOME TO THE CLUB. Same exact thing happened to me. Luckily I have a landline, but calling back did me no good. I was sent to Apple. They told me everything looked good. I was then rerouted to AT&T, because the guy told me it was something on their end. The girl from ATT had me restart the phone, confirm the numbers, yada yada yada, then she was stumped, so she called technical support. They looked and said everything looked fine, it was probably just a matter of waiting it out.

So now, like you, I don't have a working cell phone either...I am going to call back again shortly and see if I can get this figured out. If I find out what the issue is, I will post and let you know, so if you somehow get a hold of them, you can get your issue worked out too.

EDIT: WOOT...it had been off of 20 or so minutes and I just turned it back on, and it works now! I would recommend that you keep periodically power cycling your phone, trellisaze. Hopefully it will activate soon.
 
HA!

WELCOME TO THE CLUB. Same exact thing happened to me. Luckily I have a landline, but calling back did me no good. I was sent to Apple. They told me everything looked good. I was then rerouted to AT&T, because the guy told me it was something on their end. The girl from ATT had me restart the phone, confirm the numbers, yada yada yada, then she was stumped, so she called technical support. They looked and said everything looked fine, it was probably just a matter of waiting it out.

So now, like you, I don't have a working cell phone either...I am going to call back again shortly and see if I can get this figured out. If I find out what the issue is, I will post and let you know, so if you somehow get a hold of them, you can get your issue worked out too.

EDIT: WOOT...it had been off of 20 or so minutes and I just turned it back on, and it works now! I would recommend that you keep periodically power cycling your phone, trellisaze. Hopefully it will activate soon.

Awesome! Glad yours worked eventually. I have been power cycling mine and will continue to do so while I wait it out. You say yours was off for 20 minutes? Maybe I should try that.
 
Been calling AT&T for an hour now.

Just update my IMEI and ICCID, I plead.
There is nothing more we can do at this time, they lie through their teeth.

Then I get transferred to Apple for a problem that AT&T could fix.

Sigh.
 
Just to verify....

I am on hold with AT&T and have been for 35 minutes so far. 60 minutes is about the right time to talk to someone to activate, correct?

I got through pretty quickly, but first I was talking to an iPhone CSR (wait time was about 3-4 minutes) who then directly connected me to an AT&T rep - that took just a couple of minutes as well. You might try getting through to iPhone tech support first and see if they will reroute you. Though at this point I'm not sure I'd hang up if I were you!
 
I switch my SIM card from my 2G, to my 3GS and its working fine now. 3G icon appeared at the top, and browsing at 3G speed.


I did this too and got a text that my phone did not have a data plan to support the 3g speeds and I would be charged my other phone sitll wont activate though. sigh
 
I got through pretty quickly, but first I was talking to an iPhone CSR (wait time was about 3-4 minutes) who then directly connected me to an AT&T rep - that took just a couple of minutes as well. You might try getting through to iPhone tech support first and see if they will reroute you. Though at this point I'm not sure I'd hang up if I were you!

Thanks. If you don't mind me asking, what iPhone CSR number did you call? This one:

1-800-MY-IPHONE (1-800-694-7466)
 
Thanks. If you don't mind me asking, what iPhone CSR number did you call? This one:

1-800-MY-IPHONE (1-800-694-7466)

I was using my old iPhone so I dialed 611, so it would recognize me. Then I selected iPhone technical support from the menu. It was one of the first options it gave me (probably because it knew who I was and the fact I was calling from an iPhone) and I thought it sounded like a good shot, but really I think it just connected me to an Apple person. They routed me back to AT&T but personally got the CSR on the line before transferring me.
 
Called AT&T and the guy says there's not much he can do. He says all he can say is that he sees my activation pending. My rep talked to an Itunes rep or something and they said there's nothing anyone can do and to just wait. :(
 
Called AT&T and the guy says there's not much he can do. He says all he can say is that he sees my activation pending. My rep talked to an Itunes rep or something and they said there's nothing anyone can do and to just wait. :(

I think that's the boat I'm in now too. Did they give you any indication of how long you have to wait?
 
My iPhone 3GS came in the mail today, so I plugged it into iTunes and set everything up. The screen never came up with the AT&T activation info. I was wondering if I had to do anything else while apparently waiting for my phone to "activate"?


I was never prompted with a screen to activate my phone.

It just says, "waiting on activation" on the iphone.
 
I think that's the boat I'm in now too. Did they give you any indication of how long you have to wait?

None, the Itunes rep told the AT&T rep to just reboot your computer, then turn on Itunes. Reboot the phone, plug in the phone and let it sit and advised to walk away because there was no telling when Itunes was going to complete the activation. The Itunes rep said Itunes is having major issues due to the large volume of people trying to activate their phones.
 
ok nice got it, so here's what I did:
1. Turn off your existing phone completely, in my case it was an original iPhone.
2. Then make sure your iphone 3gs is disconnected from the computer.
3. Turn off your 3gs
Both phones should be off at this point.
4.Turn back on your 3GS and it should be activated

Hope this helps.

This worked for me. My iPhone 3G S⃣ turned back on and within a minute or two it had been activated. :)
 
Awesome! Glad yours worked eventually. I have been power cycling mine and will continue to do so while I wait it out. You say yours was off for 20 minutes? Maybe I should try that.

Yes I did leave it off for a while and then turn it back on.
 
None, the Itunes rep told the AT&T rep to just reboot your computer, then turn on Itunes. Reboot the phone, plug in the phone and let it sit and advised to walk away because there was no telling when Itunes was going to complete the activation. The Itunes rep said Itunes is having major issues due to the large volume of people trying to activate their phones.

Is it necessary to leave it plugged into iTunes while waiting for activation? My understanding is as long as AT&T has your IMEI number correct and your plan is all set, you don't need iTunes to do that for you. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong though. When I was talking to the AT&T rep he never indicated I had to have it plugged into iTunes while he was having me reboot to try to get it working.

Some other things to try, if you have not already-

https://www.wireless.att.com/activations/

Activate your SIM card through AT&T at that link. I've heard of this working for others so I tried it, but it told me my phone was already set up (this was after I talked to the AT&T rep who updated my IMEI number though).

Also someone else has had luck with popping out the SIM card and putting it back in. I might try that in a second. Right now it's just off and I plan to leave it off for a little while before trying to boot it back up again.
 
I've got someone at AT&T to update my IMEI and SIM card numbers, so I'm in purgatory (where neither my new or old iPhone work) but hopefully it'll correct itself shortly.
 
ANYONE!??!?

my iTunes didn't ask me for any of that info either. First I backed up my old phone (first gen iPhone), plugged in my new phone, and it prompted me to select either "New iPhone" or "restore old iPhone" - I selected restore old iPhone from the backup I just made. That went pretty quick, it synced, all was well, except for the activation. I got the "Activating, this may take awhile" screen on my phone but nothing on iTunes.

Later I called the AT&T rep who told me they could see my phone was trying to activate, but he still asked me for my IMEI number and got that updated. I think that's what iTunes tries to do for you.

You might try this link:

https://www.wireless.att.com/activations/

I've got someone at AT&T to update my IMEI and SIM card numbers, so I'm in purgatory (where neither my new or old iPhone work) but hopefully it'll correct itself shortly.


You and me both. Let me know when yours goes through!
 
Yea I had to call 3 times until finally I got a competent guy who knew to check those numbers.

He said that the IMEI and the SIM card numbers were not matching up, so he changed them and after a reboot it worked!

The thing is, if those numbers don't match your phone will NEVER work no matter how long you wait, so I suggest you guys calling and asking to check on those numbers from the beginning.
 
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