Messages and FaceTime just won't activate on my iPad Air all of a sudden; tried a LOT of solutions

About two weeks ago, my iPad Air was spontaneously signed out of Messages and FaceTime when I was using it to browse the web while on the bus, connected via Personal Hotspot on my iPhone. Since then, I haven’t been able to sign in to either Messages or FaceTime. I can still sign in to my iCloud account as normal for other things like contact and bookmark syncing. It’s just Messages and FaceTime that refuse to activate.
The error messages I receive vary between the following:
“An error occurred during activation. Try again."
“Could not sign in. Please check your network connection and try again."
“Verification failed - The connection to iCloud timed out."
“Unable to contact the iMessage server. Try again."
This iPad Air is a replacement from Apple (quite possibly a refurbished one) that I received in November 2014, after the previous model developed a malfunctioning touchscreen in one corner. It’s worth mentioning that my iPhone and Mac are completely unaffected by any issues, and can also be signed in and out of Messages and FaceTime without a hitch.
I’ve tried an awful lot of things in an attempt to get Messages and FaceTime to sign in successfully on the iPad Air, none of which have worked, and many of which I have tried multiple times.[1]
Things I have tried in an attempt to activate Messages and FaceTime
connecting to different wifi in multiple locations (work and home) and Personal Hotspot from iPhone
signing into Messages and FaceTime with different Apple IDs (these won’t activate Messages and FaceTime either)
wiping iPad with normal restore
wiping iPad with DFU restore
resetting network settings (both after fresh install and after backup restore)
restoring from an October 2014 backup (still have to sign into Messages and FaceTime, still don’t work)
turning off the automatic timezone setting and setting the date and time manually, even though it was correct anyway
deselecting phone number and @me.com so purely using @icloud.com to sign in
running the activation process through VPN connections via London and New York
changing DNS on wifi to 8.8.8.8
updating to iOS 8.2 beta 4
I would love to hear from anybody who can provide the solution as to why Messages and FaceTime just won’t activate. Apple won't provide free support on this as the iPad is now out of warranty.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” - not Albert Einstein, but a good quote all the same ↩

Same problem in 8.1.3
Apple help!

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