iPhone 4S activation proves to be difficult for AT&T

October 14, 2011 By Mike Flacy

With each release of a new Apple iPhone, AT&T has continually struggled over the years to keep up with the sheer amount of activations on launch day.

Customers of AT&T that purchase an iPhone 4S earlier today experienced a variety of problems when attempting to activate the new smartphone. Users that failed to activate the phone on the first try were placed in a queue and were sent an email when the activation process was complete. Many customers were stuck on the activation process for hours and were unable to utilize the phone’s features until the process finished. Customers also took to Twitter and other social networks to complain about the lengthy activation times. However, Verizon and Sprint customers didn’t report the same amount of activation issues during the launch today.

AT&T’s inability to properly handle activation on iPhone launch days isn’t a new problem for the wireless company. In 2008, iPhone 3G owners were sent home on launch day after activation servers crashed leaving customers without access to a mobile phone for the majority of the day. During the launch of the 3GS, many disgruntled AT&T subscribers reported activation times that lasted up to 48 hours. During the launch of the iPhone 4, Apple attempted to spread out the distribution of the smartphone over three days and AT&T sent out text messages regarding activation to help subscribers through the process.

AT&T officials released the following statement regarding the activation issue: “As of 4:30 pm ET today, AT&T had already activated a record number of iPhones on our network – and is on-track to double our previous record for activations on a single day. These record volumes may produce slower activations for some customers, though our systems continue to run at record levels.” Previous to the release of the iPhone 4S, activations required users to plug the phone into a Mac or PC via USB and completing activation through iTunes. However, iOS 5 allows users to complete activation without having to connect the smartphone to a computer.

Check out our iPhone 4S review.

Showing 14 comments

Jared Sirilo at 7:40pm 15th October 2011 LMAO When my Galaxy S ll only took 10 minutes.
1. Ian Bell at 2:46pm 15th October 2011 Because only 10 people bought the Galaxy S II Jared! 1 per minute!Kidding.
2. jake5150 at 1:01am 16th October 2011 well ya ,your not a sheep.............but hey....I would wait days on end to activate a inferior phone with a little 3.5" screen, heck ya......and i would pay premium price to have this wonderful experience......I'm beginning to think these people aren't sheep, but plain f-ing stupid.........hmmm
Mike Flacy at 9:40am 15th October 2011 Personally, I've had various results on launch day. The iPhone 3G took about 2 hours to get activated when I was living on the east coast. I got activated right before the servers crashed when the west coast stores opened. On the west coast, my iPhone 3GS was basically a brick for about 24 hours until it was finally activated. The iPhone 4 took about an hour to get activated last year. The Apple employee when through the entire process and it was activated after I got back to the office.
Rodney Verdiner at 4:08pm 15th October 2011 ATT sucks. Not the IPhone
Renee Dillenseger at 3:38pm 15th October 2011 That is why I would never get something the day it is released. Let everyone else beta test it first I say.
Luis Linares at 3:37pm 15th October 2011 Let's see how vzw hold up.
Paul Santos at 3:17pm 15th October 2011 verizon > att&t
dailystv at 7:18am 15th October 2011 I am going on 24 hours of receiving my iPhone 4S and still no activation. Apple says it cannot help, and ATT, after one of their largest product launches is CLOSED and can offer NO HELP over the weekend. I take offense to the ATT has an exceptionally good network.... I would say it is a total BOTCH, and am contemplating returning my phone and switching to Sprint.
1. jake5150 at 12:53am 16th October 2011 finally the sheep has a flash of illumination.........had you bought the better android phone you wouldn't have these apple problems.... all this for a lousy little phone with 3.5" screen...........
andrew at 10:40pm 14th October 2011 I picked up my 4S at 8:30 this morning in Portland, and didn't have any troubles with activation. I am convinced that AT&T has an exceptionally good network in Portland OR though, I've never had any issues with it.
1. ShiloRune96 at 12:57pm 15th October 2011 Andrew I was there in line as well. I camped all night, arrived at 1:00 AM. I was like #8 in-line? It was a blast.
  1. ShiloRune96 at 12:57pm 15th October 2011 PS. This was the downtown store..
    andrew at 2:19pm 19th October 2011 Oh, awesome. I was actually at the store on Broadway and MLK..... I figured it would be less crowded, and I think i was right.