Imessage activation failure

tried every trick to make this work - checked the time zone, reset network settings, waited 24 hours, restart after turned imessage and facetime off. Spent hours on phone with apple support and my carrier. Nothing worked. Picked up a new sim card because the issue seemed to persist even if I put my sim in a friends phone. Voila. Works perfectly and also seemed to upgrade the software?? Note to Apple - please do not make older phones obsolete - the planet cannot afford to pay for your greed.