Activating iphone 3G without a sim card

Question

Activating iphone 3G without a sim card

My brother has an iphone that came without a sim card (he won it the lucky bugger). Unfortunately he entered a password and forgot it, and so it has become locked. The only solution I could see was to restore it using iTunes. I've done this but now iTunes says it "cannot activate your iphone because the sim card is not inserted or a sim pin is required". What sim card? No sim card has been used with this phone yet. The iphone says "no sim card installed -- insert a valid sim with no pin lock to active iphone". Would temporarily inserting a sim card allow us to activate it? I cant see why we should have to activate it.

Jeff.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Aug 25, 2009 5:44 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 25, 2009 6:33 PM in response to Jeffrey Young

None of the iPhone functions work until the iPhone is activated - in the U.S. anyway.

After an iPhone is deactivated after being activated, in order to install a firmware update or restore an iPhone with iTunes if wanted or needed, the no longer activated SIM card must be inserted in the iPhone in order to complete the process - the SIM card that was used with the iPhone when the iPhone was activated.

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Answer 2

Aug 25, 2009 6:44 PM in response to Allan Sampson

The iPhone did not come with a sim card. Can we use another sim card?

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Answer 3

Aug 25, 2009 6:48 PM in response to Jeffrey Young

I don't see why not, but which carrier do you plan on activating the iPhone with?

Do you know if this iPhone was originally sold as carrier locked with one of the carriers for the iPhone in Australia and if so, do you know which one?

Or was the iPhone originally sold as officially unlocked by one of the carriers for the iPhone in Australia?

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Answer 4

Aug 25, 2009 8:47 PM in response to Allan Sampson

The phone is carrier locked and we know who the carrier is. The sim card in my cell phone uses the same carrier. If I use my sim card in the iPhone will this help us unlock the phone - which was the original problem. I don't really want to activate the iPhone to use my sim card.

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Answer 5

Aug 25, 2009 9:14 PM in response to Jeffrey Young

Only the carrier the iPhone is carrier locked with can unlock the iPhone officially.

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Answer 6

Aug 25, 2009 10:24 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks Allan. I put my sim card into the iPhone and after powering it up again I could then unlock it with the slide control - everything is back to factory settings. I then took my sim card out of the iPhone (after powering off), restarted it - all OK.

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