Iphone Sim Card not supported

I have an iphone5 with AT&T (unlocked since I purchased at Apple store) and my vodafone SIM card works (as we speak).

Maybe you are assuming it is unlocked, but actually it's not.

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If you have just recently (minutes/hours, not days) bought the Italian SIM, perhaps the activation hasn't gone through yet. If possible, I'd return to the place where you bought the SIM and ask.

You say supposedly unlocked. If it is in fact unlocked you may be having a problem with how your Italian SIM card was set up. We have an unlocked Samsung and last year had an issue where we could get neither phone nor data with our Vodafone SIM in Italy. We returned to the store where we bought it and they had to change something in the set up in our phone and did something online with Vodafone and the problem was resolved. We also had a similar problem in Ireland. In Ireland we called Vodafone but not sure if that would work in Italy. Good luck!

Linda,

There could be a number of reasons why your phone isn't working with the Vodaphone SIM, and the first thought that comes to mind is that it wasn't properly unlocked. Do you recall what was done at the time you had the phone unlocked? AFAIK, iPhones are unlocked with a simple change in a database.

I'd suggest returning to the shop where you bought the Vodaphone SIM as they might be able to resolve the problem. I'm also wondering if they provided an LTE SIM as only one of the European bands is supported on the AT&T models (European phones support LTE bands 1/3/5 while North American phones support 2/4/5/17).

If you can't get it to work, there's always the option of using roaming with AT&T. Based on other posts I've seen here on the forum, the costs are not too extravagant.

Your Italian Sim should have given you instructions on how to change your APN (Access Point Name) in settings to enable voice/data on the new network ... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201699 if you don't do this there will not be a connection.

I'm beyond confused. I will be here 4 months so I need to get this resolved (hopefully with this phone). Yesterday was a long day so I couldn't handle one more thing. Time to breathe and think about this again. Thanks so much.

Linda,

Go to a Vodaphone store and see if they can help you get this sorted out. Hopefully you can find a shop with sales rep's that speak English. You could also go to a TIM store to see if they can make it work with one of their SIM's. Is there a reason you chose Vodaphone?

As you're going to be there four months, I assume you're aware of the 90 day Schengen limit? Which city are you staying in?

Linda, make sure your 4-month stay is legal. There can be costly penalties if you overstay the 90-day Schengen limit.