Pakistan’s second largest mobile phone network Telenor has blocked iMessage & Facetime activation on mobile number on its network since the end of October 2015. People at Telenor help line on 345 and Chat on Telenor’s website which deal with the complaints of their customers do not have any knowledge what is iMessage and Facetime and how it activate on iPhone.
iPhone users on Telenor Pakistan have lost too much prepaid or postpaid credit in attempt to activate the iMessage & Facetime activation from 31 Oct 2015 to 13th Nov 2015.
What is iMessage and Facetime in iPhone:
iMessage is Free SMS and MMS on iPhone to iPhone, iPad, iPod or Apple Computer (OS X) and vice versa using mobile phone number or Apple ID (Email) over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G etc .
FaceTime is Free calling application on iPhone to iPhone, iPad, iPod or Apple Computer (OS X) and vice versa using mobile phone number or Apple ID (Email) over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G etc.
On Telenor Pakistan activation on Mobile Phone number is blocked since the end of Oct 2015
How it work:
iMessage and Facetime work on your Apple ID (Email) and Mobile Phone Number. To activate iPhone user have to Turn ON iMessage and Facetime from iPhone setting and it will automatically list or register your mobile number in message and Facetime setting, after that you will be able to send Free SMS and Video or Audio Call to other iPhone or ios and OS X users over Wifi, 3G or 4G if he/she already using iMessage and Facetime. You can also register or use your Apple ID to send and receive iMessage and call on Facetime but for this you only need Wifi internet access, 3G or 4G.
If you want to activate iMessage and Facetime on your iPhone mobile number as mention above and you are Telenor Pakistan customer, you can not do it anymore as Telenor Pakistan has blocked it since end of October 2015.
How activation of iMessage and FaceTime works, following are details:
These details are also for Telenor Support (345); when calling them they say for iMessage activation you need internet; we do not control its activation because it is 3rd party application you can call Apple to fix. Yes people have called Apple and following are details:
When you turn iMessage on, the iPhone sends a text message to Apple server in UK on UK number which is +447786205094. When Apple server gets the message, it generate a response. This response uses something called Application Port Addressing to direct the message to a specific process running on the iPhone (Activate iMessage and FaceTime on iPhone). The problem with Telenor Pakistan is your iPhone never see the reply message from Apple server because Telenor has blocked the whole process since the end of October 2015.
People have reported that they have seen their SMS history on their Telenor’s self care account or in bill that their iPhones are sending SMS to +447786205094 and also being charged for this international sms of PKR 5.99 but when they investigate their iPhone log file they learned that their iPhones are not getting reply from above mention UK number and when they called Apple Support to know why their iPhone stuck on “Waiting for activation” they got reply from Apple support that your network Telenor Pakistan either blocking the reply from Apple Servers or not supportive anymore.
Screenshot of iMessage & FaceTime stuck on “Waiting for Activation” on Telenor Pakistan for last 11 days.
If you are Telenor Customer and want to register your mobile number with iMessage and Facetime then you have to get new sim of other mobile phone network. As Telenor Pakistan will not help you.
Those iPhone users who are on Telenor Pakistan and activated their iMessage and Facetime before 20th Oct 2015 are advised that do not reset your iPhones because you will stuck on “Waiting for activation”.
Following Pakistani network are supporting so far and we have tested:
Zong
Ufone
Warid
Mobilink
On following screenshot you can see Zong mobile number in list of iMessage and FaceTime after successful activation.
UPDATE 13 Nov 2015: Customers of Telenor Pakistan have confirmed on Apple Forum that Finally; Telenor Pakistan has admitted that the issue which was preventing iMessage and FaceTime activation on mobile number was at their END and now it has been resolved. We have confirmed it by activating again on Telenor and this time it works but people have lost almost Rs 1000 to 2000 from their prepaid or post paid credit in attempt to activate iMessage and FaceTime.
