Can't activate Iphone 4

So today i bought a pre-owned iphone 4 at game stop. I get home and the phone works fine

i decided to restore the device's software to its original manufacturer settings.

the phone rebooted normally and i connected it to iTunes.

Itunes sends me a message saying - "( We're sorry, we're unable to continue with your activation at this time.) (Please try again later, or contact customer care.)

i'm not sure what the problem is? Why won't the phone activate? Aditional information i don't have a sim card for it yet.

any and all help is welcome thank you in advance.

Update 1: i also tried putting the phone in dfu mode and restart the whole process thinking it might help but no luck

  • Why can't I activate iMessage on my iPhone 4S? I went to jamaica and used iMessaging when i was there with Wi-Fi. And now that I'm back in new york the iMessaging won't work or activate. What do i do? Every time i turn it back on and re-enter my password it says that an error occurred and to please try again. I've restarted my phone multiple times and did a hard reset, nothing works.
  • IPhone 5 broke, can I buy a used iPhone 4 and activate it? This may seem like a silly question, but I'm not that informed about cell phone plans really… I've had a iPhone 5 for the past year and a half through Verizon. It broke today. Like full on broke nto covered by insurance… I found a Verizon iPhone 4 for sale for like 70 bucks in great condition from someone on craigslist. If I buy that, can I go into Verizon with it and have them activate it for me and have it be my new phone? Does this make sense?
  • I want to buy an iphone 5 but can I activate it 2 weeks after I get it? The reason I want to order it is in case it goes out off stock before I'm due my upgrade 3rd of november, so my question is can I buy the iphone 5 contract phone then activate it two weeks after it arrives as it won't get here until 2-3 weeks anyways? And I'm not being an iphone 'sheep' I want the iphone 5 thanks!
  • I can't activate my iphone, itunes can't see my sim.what to do? I got iPhone 3gs as a gift, when I tried to restore it to its default I got stuck on this. The msg is this " There's no SIM card installed in the iPhone you are attempting to activate please disconnect and insert a SIM card in the iPhone " can any one please tell me what to do to fix this problem?