iOS™, iPhone™ and iPad™

[Annsheree]

Hi Everyone,

In regrads to your iPhone saying "SIM NOT VALID" ...Just thought I would share what I found out to save many people lots of time  (it took me many hours on the phone waiting on hold before speaking to Vodafone & then Telstra to resolves this problem).

"SIM NOT VALID" = CAUSED BY JB HI-FI (and by any other retailer that allowed you to buy the iPhone outright and told you that means the phone is UNLOCKED)!!!

My husband bought me an iPhone 4S through JB HI-FI. He specifically paid more to buy it outright so that it was an "Unlocked" phone so I could use my Vodaphone Sim card in it. When i put my sim card in I got this message>>

"SIM Not Valid: Only compatible SIM cards from a supported carrier may be used to activate iPhone. Please insert the SIM card that came with your iPhone or visit a supported carrier's store to receive a replacement SIM card."

SOLUTION = Call Telstra on 1800 782 489 (this is the specific number to get your iPhone Unlocked).

After going through all the possible options with a Vodafone tech it was discovered that there was definately nothing wrong on the Vodafone end of things and they believe that the only reason I would be getting this "Sim Not Valid" message on my screen is that it is in fact "Locked" to another carrier, and not "Unlocked" like JB HI-FI had told us.

I rang Telstra on the above number and was told that ALL iPhones are initially locked to Telstra! (other carriers can than purchase the phone and have it locked to themselves for sales with that carrier for plans & pre-paid).

But ALL iPhone's that are bought outright are actually LOCKED to Telstra. So please call the above number, tell them that you bought it outright through JB HI-FI (or other retail store), they will ask you for you IMEI number so they can confirm that's where you bought it from & it was bought outright etc, and then they will Unlock for phone for FREE! (I was told that it may take up to 24hrs for it to process through their system & unlock my phone, however I was pleasantly surprised when only 5mins later my phone was unlocked and ready to use).

If you are new to iPhones like myself then another thing you need to know is that you need a "Micro Sim Card" to be able to use the iPhone. 

Neither my hubby or myself knew this as we are new to iPhones so needless to say I wasn't too impressed at all when I discovered that the sim card from my old phone didn't fit into my new iPhone  without a sim card in the iPhone its completely useless, you can't get into any settings or even use it as an iPod in the mean time! Thanks to a quick phone call to Vodafone I learnt that I needed to go into a Vodafone store and they will do a "Sim Swap" for me to the new "Micro Sim".

NOTE: If you DO want to keep any credit you have left on your old sim card then you MUST go into a Vodafone store!

The guy at the Vodafone store was fantastic and within minutes had done a "Sim Swap" for me which transferred my account details, allowed me to keep my current phone number and remaining credits on to my new "Micro Sim" card.

NOTE: If you don't have any credit left or don't care about losing whatever credit you do have left then you can just go get yourself a "Micro Sim" from anywhere that sells Vodafone started kits, then just call Vodafone and they will port your current number over to your new sim card.

 Well I hope this was at least helpful to someone and may save someone wasting 4hrs of their time with messing around with phone calls etc like i had to.

[Anthony]

Hi Annsheree,

Thanks for posting this info here, I'm sure many customers will find this very helpful when searching for related topics and key words within the post.

If there is anything that I can help you with then please let me know,

Thanks,

Anthony