Old iPhone Reactivation

24/09/10 13:30 Filed in: Computer
One last point: in the process of removing the SIM card, I used a safety pin instead of a paperclip.  When I went to put a SIM card back in the old iPhone, it would not go in all the way.  A local store named World of Wireless fixed my problem for $20 though now the SIM does not pop out.  I need to pry the SIM carrier out.  Beware! Do not use a safety pin.  I think the sharp point might slip inside the slot and mess something up.

friday, 24 september 2010 13:30
I have an original iPhone that I wanted to use without the AT&T cellular service.  We bought a new iPhone and didn't need this one for calling.  After we removed the SIM card to put into the new phone, the old phone still worked for apps and music though it warned us that it had no SIM card.  All was ok until I decided to restore iOS to get rid of all the original data and settings.  After that it needed to be reactivated through iTunes, but would not do so without a SIM card.
I talked with both AT&T and Apple who told me that I could use a SIM card from my current 3GS iPhone and iTunes on my Mac to activate the phone. Note that I had already tried a blank SIM card at AT&T's suggestion. There is no way to connect to iTunes or do anything with an unactivated phone.  I could not even jail-break the phone.  But this should be no problem since once I activated the older phone, I could just put the SIM back in the newer phone.  Except for one problem, the older phone uses a different $20 data plan because of the slower EDGE only phone service.  For that reason, AT&T had problems activating the phone through iTunes and even trying to do it manually. They said that the $30 data plan would be restored when I put the SIM back in the 3GS iPhone. After claiming that the old phone was activated and they could ring the number, the phone never rang and was not activated according to iTunes.  I also talked with Apple support who tried everything until they went to escalate the call and I lost the connection.
I called AT&T back again, but I would have had to go through the whole trouble shooting process again. I finally decided to just get another phone number and new SIM card.  The guy from AT&T support said they could waive the normal activation fee and that I could cancel the new phone number account at no charge.  But he could not send me a SIM card for an iPhone though he could for other phones.  I would have to go to a local AT&T store and beg them to do the same thing for my iPhone. Instead, I got a SIM mailed to me for an old Motorola Razr phone that I still had. I had to supply the IMEI number from the Motorola phone.   When I received the SIM today, I just put it in my old iPhone and it worked perfectly.  The old iPhone is reactivated and running like normal.
Well, almost like normal.  I still have a problem with the on-screen keyboard in the portrait orientation. It is difficult to press the .?123, Space and Return keys to work.  Part of the time, the Shift, Delete or other 2nd row keys will "press".  Interestingly, the problem does not occur in all applications.
I doubt the ordeal is over yet though.  Supposedly, my 3GS iPhone is back on the $30 unlimited data plan and I still need to cancel the new phone number account.  Will see how the billing turns out.

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