Cannot activate iPhone 3GS!

Question

I was given an iphone 3GS by my father who got it as an upgrade on the orange network, he had no use for it so gave it to me. I, in my ignorance, inserted my o2 sim card, it worked for half an hour then shut down. It then sat in the box unused for a few months while I waited for my o2 contract to run out and I have now got a new orange contract. I took the phone out again, DFU restored it after it being locked, went through the settings until I got to the activate stage. It is now telling me that it cannot activate and to try through itunes. However itunes tells me there is no sim card! I have done everything it has told me to no avail. The phone has never been unlocked, officially or unofficially, so I dont see why it wouldnt work after restoring the factory settings. Its an orange phone, orange sim card. Please help!!!

Answer 1

I have already contacting Apple about this problem as they said no-one else could reslove it i.e carphpne warehouse etc... Mine had been jailbroken so i thought it had effected it in someway, but ive tried everything and cant get it to work.
Apple told me i wasnt under warranty so therefore i would either have to send it to them (as they'd not heard of this problem before) OR i go to my nearest Apple store, which is over 100 miles away for me. I asked how much it will cost to send it to Apple she said £126.56..And that was just to look at it. She did however say it would be cheaper going into an Apple store, but not much. I said forget it and bought another second hand phone as it worked out cheaper. My other iphone remains the same and keeps saying unable to activeate iphone. Sorry i know its not much help really but possibly if someone else finds out the problem they could let us know?!! here's hoping anyways.