I had my old phone stolen during a robbery and so for the time being I'm using my sister's old iPhone 3GS (locked to Orange, I think).

I just got a free Pay as You Go SIM from Orange, slipped it inside the tray and I'm getting 'No Service' and a picture of iTunes and a USB cable.

So I've hooked it up to iTunes and now I can access the rest of the phone's features, but I still have 'no service'. How do I fix this?

Did you register the SIM with Orange? It might need to be registered to be activated.

The information sheet it came with says "To get going, just pop your SIM into your phone. You'll then get a text with your new phone number."

I did that, but it didn't work. I went to the website and activated by entering my SIM number and IMEI and they gave me a phone number.

"That's it - your phone will be ready to use shortly. We'll send you a text with your number and 4-digit PIN number. This could take up to 24 hours."

Still getting No Service on the phone though...

you sure the iphone is unlocked and is able to use an orange sim ?

Yeah, it's definitely Orange. Got the little booklet that comes with the iPhone box right here.

but is the sim orange, or EE ?

It says Orange on the SIM and I got it off the Orange website.

well it's going to be one of 2 things.

1) the sim is not active
2) the phone is not accepting a sim on that network

have you rebooted the phone with the sim in it since you activated it online ?

For whatever reason, it found the EE network shortly after my last post and I got my confirmation messages from Orange. I guess it was just the normal delay? On the Android phones I've had it's always found the network instantly, but whatever... just glad it's sorted.

Thanks for your help.