"Verification failed" while setting up new ipad

I’m trying to set up a newly purchased iPad Air, and trying to load it with her latest iCloud backup from my current/latest (in operation) iPad. However, even when entering the password (for the apple account) correctly, the new iPad keeps giving “Verification failed: there was an error connecting to the Apple server”. This happens during the setup stage itself. So none of the online suggestions about setting time or making changes in "Settings" apply here.

At that point the setup is stuck as it doesn't move forward to downloading anything from icloud or transferring from my latest ipad.

This happens even when I try to setup the new iPad to download the latest Icloud backup, and it happens when I try to do a peer to peer transfer from her old iPad.

The password is correct, and I verified it successfully logging into iCloud account via a browser on a totally different device.

The online suggestions are all for *working* devices. Can someone point me to recommendations for new devices (ipad) being setup, suffering this error?