Activation server temporarily unavaliable

I thought I had lost my iphone 5 so clicked on erase device from find my iphone, which erases all settings and content.

When I finally found my phone it opened on a set up. After selecting a language, country and connectiong to wi-fi, the

message "it may take a few minutes to activate your iphone", then it says "activaition server is temporarily unavaliable",

I clicked on try again countless times the past two days, but the same message appeared.

I tried everything, I tried shutting the device off and openning it again a few times, with no luck.

I connected it to itunes to attempt to restore it, but recieved this message :

The SIM card inserted in this iPhone is PIN locked.

Please enter the PIN code of your SIM card and connect your iPhone to iTunes again.

I know my SIM card pin but there is noway I can enter it without opening the phone and it being activated, so what can I do?

Am really confused there seems like there's nothing to do about this situation, please help.

Thank you 🙂