Haven't been able to make/receive calls or texts for a month

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Level 1

8 points

Haven't been able to make/receive calls or texts for a month

I've had no service on my phone for a month now and haven't been able to make or receive calls or texts. I've had my phone (iphone 4) for almost a year now, one day it was fine, the next it wasn't. It literally just happened over night. My sim card works fine in other phones so i know thats not the problem.

After an endless amount of phone calls to O2 and no solution to the problem, I've now been told that my phone isn't reading the sim card properly and my phone needs to be sent to Apple. I'd take it to a store but the nearest one is 45 miles away and I don't drive so it's not very easy to get to. Also, as i bought it from a different website and not from an apple store and don't have any proof of purchase or warranty, would they still be able to fix it for me?

I recently went to Spain and while I was there my phone worked perfectly and I could call and text as usual, but as soon as I got back to the UK it stopped working again which suggests to me that it's nothing to do with my phone, as it was able to read the sim card fine in another country. Would I achieve anything by getting it unlocked and changing to another network?

Has anybody encountered anything like this before or have any solutions to the problem? After a month of this i'm at my wits end!!

iPhone 4, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 29, 2012 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,303 points

Sep 29, 2012 8:28 AM in response to caroline812

From the sounds of your message here, it sounds as if you have purchased a phone that is locked to another carrier. If the phone had been working for you on O2 and now it doesn't, did this occur when you updated software, or did a restore? The phone was probably "hacked" to work on another network, and from the sounds of it, it was locked to a carrier in Spain since it was working there. Where did you purchase the phone. If you did not purchase from Apple as an unlocked phone, it is more than likely the problem. You need to contact the carrier the phone is locked to and see if they provide unlock services. If that is not the case, Apple will not need your recepit. You can call Apple Care and they will take care of any exchange over the phone and through the postal service. However, since the phone is out of warranty, if it needs replacing, you will need to pay for a replacement.

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Answer 2

caroline812 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 29, 2012 8:40 AM in response to ChrisJ4203

Thanks for the reply. I bought the phone on november the 1st 2011 and it has worked perfectly until the end of last month when it started saying 'no service', and no this didn't occur during an update or restore. I don't make many calls or send texts a lot so I don't know when exactly when it did happen but I know it was working on september the 28th and it wasn't on september the 30th, I didnt update, restore or anything. When I bought it, (cant remember exactly where i bought it but it was an online shop), it was sold as being on the O2 network.

I contacted the network and they said they could unlock it, so maybe i'll try it on the Orange network instead as I managed to use that without any problems in Spain.

Thank you for the answer to my other questions as well.

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Answer 3

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,303 points

Sep 29, 2012 8:43 AM in response to caroline812

When you used it in Spain, did you put an Orange SIM card in the phone? If so, it should have been unlocked in some manner. If you were using the o2 SIM, it still doesn't mean the SIM was ok. Did you try and have o2 replace the SIM card to see if that would correct the issue?

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Answer 4

caroline812 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 29, 2012 8:54 AM in response to ChrisJ4203

No I didn't put an orange sim in, it jwas my usual O2 sim card but it just picked up the orange and movistar networks while i was there. When i went to the O2 shop they put my sim in another phone and they said it worked fine. I've tried another O2 sim in my phone but I don't get any service with that one either.

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