Factory-unlocked iPhone 4 will not activate

Question

Hello,
I bought iPhone 4 (Factory-unlocked) from Australia and brought back to Japan.
I tried to activate the phone first time and it asks me to insert SIM.
So I inserted the trimmed SIM (Japanese). But the iTunes says "The SIM card inserted is not supported."
However, the trimmed SIM with proper adopter works fine with Japanese phone.
I tried this with many other SIM in Japan but failed to activate iPhone 4.
I also called up Apple in Australia and gave them the IMEI number to confirm the phone.
They confirmed that the phone is proper and factory-unlocked one from Apple.
I also bought the so-called "Activation SIM" and tried activation with this SIM.
This time, it let me sync with my iTunes successfully but cannot get any cellphone signal obviously.
Now, I can see menu and contents on the phone but it keeps shows "Waiting for activation".
So I changed the SIM to Japanese SIM but again, it does not activate nor sync to iTunes.
Could someone help?
Do I need Australian SIM?
Can I activate with Australian SIM (that supports roaming in Japan) in Japan ?

Answer 1

Hi I am too living in Japan and bought an iPhone 4 back from Australia in September. I had activated it using a Jailbreak app, activation successful.
Now the problem, you are NOT able to use an iPhone in Japan that is not officially documented from Softbank. This means that Softbank has every IMEI number of each iPhone to be used in their system. When roaming, in Japan let’s say with an AT&T iPhone from the USA, this will work, because the system recognizes that it is a foreign number in the system and then applies the roaming charges to your Home Counties account. I had to go and pay an RF test registration fee to have my iPhone IMEI number placed on a list that Softbank accesses when registering, without the registration fee from the RF test certification company, the number is NOT added to the list… Softbank will then tell you it is NOT allowed to be used in Japan. This cost me more then paying 6 months of subscription and services if I had just opened a new account and contract with Softbank for a new Japanese iPhone 4.