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Vodafone India customer....on my iPhone5, imessage and facetime are giving error "waiting for activation"

Hi


I have iPhone 5 with Vodafone India connection. The major challenge is Facetimche & iMessage giving error "waiting for activation"


I have tried all the available solutions in Google search but still no change.....


Please help in getting this sorted out!!!


Thanks


Atin

iPhone 5, iOS 6.0.2

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 2:15 AM

Reply
114 replies

Jan 23, 2013 12:53 AM in response to atinmahajan

Hello Atin


Best option would be to contact Vodafone, and check that international SMS is provisioned on your account.
Reason being, that when iMessage is activated, it sends an international message to the UK to activate your iMessage service.


Usually if it says Waiting for activation, International SMS is not provisioned, and it is failed to activate.

Jan 23, 2013 3:37 AM in response to Vodafone India

Hi


I have already raised the same to Vodafone team and the request number is 1262872630. Please check on the same.....just for your information (as mentioned by Joel) "when iMessage is activated, it sends an international message to the UK to activate your iMessage service. Usually if it says Waiting for activation, International SMS is not provisioned, and it is failed to activate. "

Jan 23, 2013 7:02 AM in response to joelJURASSIC

hey i checked my international sms is enabled.....but still doesnt work....

i went to maple service centre....they said its vodafone but dont know what it is.....vodafone has no idea about imessage service....and maple helpline says vodafone has an issue and try a airtel or aircel sim and also ask airtel or aicel to activate imessage from their end.

is this only happening with vodafone india iphone users or any other carriers as well???

Jan 23, 2013 8:19 AM in response to Vodafone India

User uploaded fileUser uploaded fileLevel 1 (0 points)

chakkochi




Hi All,


This problem is solved for me, with some help from the carriers. At last 😀

Let me describe my situation once again.


I am from India, where the official iPhone carriers are Airtel and Aircel.

I have two prepaid connections - One from Airtel and one from Reliance GSM

Whenever I try to activate iMessage from my Reliace SIM, it shows activation unsuccessful, the the receive at shows my email ID only.

But whenever I try activate it using Airtel SIM, it activates just fine. But since my primary connection is the Reliance one, I wanted it to get activated for Reliance.


I have tried every tweaks/restore etc mentioned in this discussion, but nothing worked.


The solution:


This does not require any jailbreak/restore. Just a little help from the carrier.

For all reliance GSM customers in India, you can just try to activate in again. I think they have solved it for all customers.


I was almost lost hope of activating imeesage on Reliance. But then one of my friends bought a new iphone (4S). He had a docomo connection, and he also had this same issue. But using his contacts in docomo, he enabled some trace in his connection, and found out that the phone was trying to send SMS to a UK number (short code), which is blocked by their RA team.


This is that magic number : 00445773142076


So from him, I got the number. I raised a complaint with Reliance.

The complaint had nothing about imessage, but it said: "I am unable to send international SMS to the number 00445773142076, even after having sufficient balance and an active SMS plan"


So they have done some 'unblocking' and called me this morning and asked to try again 'sending sms to the same number' . I went to settings and activated imessage and facetime/ Thats it !!!!.

A big thanks to Reliance GSM support for the quick solution.


For anyone on Reliance GSM in India, just try activating it now.

For others, log a complaint with the carrier that "you want to send SMS to the number 00445773142076.


Thanks all


Jan 23, 2013 11:39 AM in response to atinmahajan

iOS: Troubleshooting FaceTime and iMessage activation

Products Affected

iPad, iPhone, iPod touch


Symptoms

Learn to resolve FaceTime and iMessage activation issues on iOS devices.


Resolution

Activation and registration

iPhone automatically registers your phone number for use with FaceTime and iMessage during activation.


To use FaceTime with your Apple ID, navigate to Settings > FaceTime and tap Use your Apple ID for FaceTime.

To use iMessage with your Apple ID, navigate to Settings > Messages > Receive At and tap Use your Apple ID for iMessage.

When you enable FaceTime or iMessage with an iPad or iPod touch, you will need to enter a valid Apple ID and password. Other users will be able to contact you on FaceTime and iMessage using this email address.


Troubleshooting Apple ID activation

Troubleshooting telephone-number activation (iPhone only)

Additional Information

To sign out of your Apple ID:

Go to Settings > FaceTime, tap your Apple ID, and select Sign Out.

Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive, tap your Apple ID, and select Sign Out.

Find information about linking your phone number to an Apple ID for use with FaceTime and iMessage.

Find help with issues you may encounter when using iMessage or FaceTime behind a firewall.

Recommended Wi-Fi router and access-point settings.

Note: FaceTime may not be available in all countries or regions.

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.

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Jan 23, 2013 12:20 PM in response to atinmahajan

I'm having this same issue on the 5 with iOS 6.0.2. I have tried everything from resetting network settings, resetting all settings, restoring from backup to finally erasing the phone and setting it up as a new device. I had my sim replaced as well. But nothing seems to have worked. And Vodafone is utterly clueless. Initially they were blaming Apple. Now they have indirectly acknowledged that they are at fault. Waiting for a solution asap. Or will need to switch carriers. Thankfully we do have MNP.

Jan 24, 2013 3:26 AM in response to ads87

i got an aircel sim card....will get an airtel too(prepaid) and will test it out then.....

however it takes 48 hours with airtel and 3 days with aircel to activate......so till then im going to try the last solution on the apple troubleshooting page for imessage....i.e dont activate it for minimum 24 hours and try then.....

i personally think this should work too because when i gave my iphone 5 for repair,i didnt use imessage for 3 days.and then when i put my vodafone sim inside and tried,it worked.


so lets see....lets not end this discussion till its solved.....a lot of people abroad r also having this issue.....if it is carriers for most people then they dont know about it.....and it can be solved worldwide by apple later

Jan 25, 2013 4:24 AM in response to ARSC

i dont this vodafone member is going to do anything other than post that link and say make a complaint....

well i did fill in the above vodafone link.....got a call yesterday from vodafone,explained it to them and they said they shall rectify it within 72 hours.....however i beleive that was just mandatory formal call and they wont end up doing anything.....

i know of 4 people using vodafone mumbai facing the same issue....

also like i said didnt try activating imessage for atleast 24 hours(i waited 36).but no luck this time just says waiting for acivation.....so that didnt help.....

after a lot of google,i realized a lot of people say imessage and facetime send a silent international sms to +447786205094 and not the number i mentioned(which was posted by a guy and he said he found out the number personally from contacts in docomo)


i think whatsapp and viber also use a similar method to activate ur number....

well if anyone can find out the silent sms number where apple sends for activation,then pls let us know....


u can contact me for any queries and help


thanks


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Vodafone India customer....on my iPhone5, imessage and facetime are giving error "waiting for activation"

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