I bought two iPhone 4S from UK, both actory unlocked, and shipped them to my family in Egypt. One activated with an Egyptian SIM and the other refuses to activate on any sim, all of the sims work on other iphones. How can I get the phone activated? I am sure it is factory unlocked and the model nummber is MD235B/A if you want to check!
iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1
Where precisely did you purchase the iPhone4s
Only Apple Retail stores or Apple UK online sell unlocked iPhones in UK all other sources will be locked to a UK carrier
The MD number is irrelevant, it does not indicate locked status or otherwise
It was from an Apple retail store. The thing is the person who bought it for me, got them form the same store, one worked and the other didn't!
Then you need to contact the Apple Store you purchase the iPhones from .
All UK Apple iPhone sales are unlocked so something has gone wrong with this one.
It will need to be returned to the store if faulty as the warranty is not valid outside the EU
The phone was shipped to me by a friend. I am now on the phone with Apple UK support and I hope they help. Thanks so much for your reply.
Ok Good luck
ihab.mouti , have you finally resolved the problem? I have the same story: bought iPhone in UK, put Russia SIM card there was a message that SIM is not valid and I need use compatible sim for activation.
Did apple support help you?
If you purchased from an Apple Retail store in UK or from UK Apple online the iPhone should be unlocked and
if you call Apple in UK they will probably be able to help you as an error will have been made in processing the sale
If you purchased from any other UK source the iPhone4s WILL be locked to a UK carrier
I bought phone in Apple Store on Regent street in London, put Russian SIM while in UK - there was an error of invalid SIM. I went to the store to activate phone there, they used their "dummy" sim for activation, I even saw when my phone was on and active, then I changed to my russian sim card then and again this error.
At the Apple store they said that for Russian and Ukrainian sim cards 24 hours are needed to complete activation.
More than 24 hours have passed by the moment and still nothing is working. 😟 And I'm far away from London already.
Only other suggestion is to try a new sim,.is the iP4s released in Russia yet if so get a new sim from your carrier
and ensure your carrier is Apple approved.
secondly check for update on iTunes, there is an update purely for the iP4s which may address this problem
if your version in "about" is 5.01(9A405) you need to update to 5.01 (9A406)
Peter, thank you for the feedback, I will try to get in touch with Apple UK for support, as you advised, and try new sim, if no success.
Thank you.
good luck ...a great phone when you get it working 🙂
I called to Apple support to UK and they fixed it remotely! Thanks!
Great and thanks for feeding back good to know it works
the warranty is not valid outside the EU
Can you point us to an Apple statement to that effect? I believe that most Apple warranties are world-wide. The exception being the Verizon phone.
OH dear here we go ...again
the iPhone does not have a worldwide warranty it is valid in the country of purchase only .
The exception is the EU where Apple recognise the EU as one entity for warranty purposes
EU is the European Union for your information
http://images.apple.com/legal/warranty/docs/iPhone_4_warranty.pdf
See Important restriction section
iPhone 4S Sim Card Not Valid [Factory Unlocked]
