'Your iphone could not be activated because the activation server cannot be reached. Try connecting your iphone to itunes to activate it, or try again in a few minutes'. - it has been over an hour of persistent failure, any tips?

Also here in Ireland the same, It stated that my Main iCloud account could reach the server to agree to the new terms so i decided to restore the device to factory settings and here I am not able to even use the phone.

I am also having this issue iPhone 5 iOS7. When I plug my iPhone into my windows computer iTunes reports that it can't connect as well. My internet connection is working fine and I've disabled all antivirus and firewalls that could be preventing the connection from happening.

Looks like Apple servers are overloaded (bunch posts here about it). So lets wait. For now we are without phones. I guess Apple stocks will go down more tomorrow.

yea my iphone 5 finally updated but after 2 hours of trying. Just keep trying i guess....

I restored my iphone and now i cannot connect to the server neither , its driving me mad, nice to know its not me or my phone but an apple issue i hope ?

i've done all the suggestions..restore, connect to itunes but still could not reach..i've been thinking this is due to billions of users are updating at same time around the globe..

Im still trying to activate my iPhone, 70 minutes so far. So I will keep trying =/

I am backing up devices in iTunes, then disconnnecting from iTunes. Doing updates manually on the device arcoss the wifi. Working good. After update has downloaded it is taking a while to update the device.

Good luck!

well hey!! i've successfully activate my iphone...just try it all over and over again mate...

finally got through 😀

mine just activated after hitting retry for several hours