does my child need carrier service to do facetime and imessage?

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does my child need carrier service to do facetime and imessage?

I recently switched cell carriers and upgraded to a new iphone. My old iphone I gave to my child who has a child icloud account under my family share. There is no cell service for her phone and I unlocked it before moving to the new carrier, however she is unable to activate facetime and imessage on wifi. Does she need to have cell service to do imessage and facetime? It works fine on her ipad, but I'm unable to get it to work on the phone. I have gone to setting and tried to turn on facetime but I get an error message for activation. Her phone is an Iphone X

Posted on Mar 9, 2021 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

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SravanKrA

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Mar 9, 2021 6:30 AM in response to kripatel

No, you do not need carrier service for iMessage and FaceTime.

However, you will need one time SMS service for activating iMessage and FaceTime

First, check to know whether you have an SMS plan enabled at least for One SMS with your carrier. Contact your Carrier (Cellular Service Provider) the agency that issued the SIM to you

If your iPhone is used with a carrier not found in the wireless carrier articles, make sure you can send and receive international SMS. (One SMS Only)

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Answer 2

kripatel Author

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8 points

Mar 10, 2021 4:26 AM in response to SravanKrA

Thank you, this worked and now the phone is working without a SIM

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Answer 3

Mar 9, 2021 6:38 AM in response to kripatel

As noted above, the phone needs to be able to send an SMS in order to activate iMessage and FaceTime. You can use your active SIM. Put it back in your daughter's phone and then sign into iMessage and Facetime using her Apple ID. Make sure not to use your Apple ID. Once it's active, put the SIM back in your phone.

Note that, if the services ever get deactivated, you'll need to perform the same procedure again. They can become deactivated if the phone doesn't have access to WiFi for too long.

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does my child need carrier service to do facetime and imessage?

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