I am going nuts due to this issue since couple of days! I think mine was running successfully on iOS 11.x and then I did factory reset couple of days ago and since i wasn't able to activate it! I am not able to talk on chat support as my chat support package is expired. Me and one of my colleague had serious discussion about this, we had a doubt that Apple will put some serious bug willingly so that after few years old device user will have to upgrade to new device willingly or unwillingly, although I believe its highly unlikely Apple will do such thing! My effort to connect with chat services was useless , Apple support on twitter help me to generate case ID, but i think even if they help me with case ID i will have to pay! 😠 😟