Q: Not able to activate new iPhone from India in US.

Where did you purchase the phone in India? None of the carriers in India offer unlocking services. If this is not an unlocked phone, you will not be able to unlock it and use it in the US. Only the carrier the device is locked to can authorize an unlock.

I could be wrong, but I doubt your phone is carrier locked. Carrier locked phones, in India, are, to the best of my knowledge, unusual. That's never been the business model used there. Can you try calling AppleCare again & see if the phone is listed in the officially unlocked database? They'll want the phone's IMEI number to check.

What did you tell Apple when you purchased the phone? Did you request an unlocked phone? What does the receipt say? Does it indicate a carrier in India?

When you try to activate the device, what error are you seeing that it is not activating?

Quit guessing here, get the facts...call AppleCare & ask if the phone's IMEI number is in the officially unlocked database. If not, ask what carrier it is locked to.

And you will not be able to use the device with wi-fi until after you have activated the device.

If you have bought it from Apple store then i can assure you that its unlocked since India doesn't have locked phones except for those which have been illegally imported. Try a different sim, maybe borrowing a sim already being used in a friends iphone 5/5s/5c.

But as far as the lock/unlock status is concerned then you can rest assured that your phone is unlocked if it was bought from Apple store.

It's always been my knowledge that "locked" phones, of any kind, are not sold in India. Never been the business model there, as I stated in my original post. Can you confirm, since you live there, that this is, in fact, correct?

grover6 wrote:

 

I bought it from Apple store in India (Bangalore). Since I enver put my India SIM, I dont knwo which carrier / if it is locked in India. How do I even know if it is locked or unlocked iphone.

Put in a SIM. If it is locked you will get a message that says "This SIM is not supported. Insert a SIM from a supported carrier". If you do not get a message similar to this the phone is unlocked, and you have a different problem.

Yes, thats absolutely right. In India, one can only purchase an unlocked iphone.

There are few operators who sell iphones, but at full price and offer some freebies like free data for 6 months, on these phones.

Some local mobile shops illegally import iphones from US and UK without paying the duties and then sell it a little cheaper. These phones are locked to their respective operators of US/UK, but any phone which apple intends for Indian market is definately unlocked.

This is good information to know since the Apple document shows that Indian carriers do not offer unlocking services. Normally we would tell someone they not be able to unlock a phone, but knowing the ones sold at Apple are all unlocked, it provides better information.

Apple's document is not quite clear...just because it shows that a carrier does not offer unlocking, doesn't mean the phones are carrier locked. As an example, for both Singapore & Israel, it will show the carriers do not offer unlocking. The reason they don't is that, by law, all phones sold in those two countries, must be officially unlocked. There's no law that requires such in India, but the business model is different there. Carriers just don't lock phones. If they did, no one would purchase them.