Unable to activate 3gs

Hello,
I have been given a iphone 3gs, I have managed to upgrade to ios 6.1 i think, but am now unable to activate message says "YOur iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily down......... try again in a few minuutes"... If the problem persists contact Apple Support.
I have waited for quite some time but still get the same message. It does not matter if I am connected via itunes or WiFi - the same error appears.
Please help...
Thank you

Apple does not support jailbreaking or hacking iPhones to unlock them, and when you try to update or restore such a device, and Apple's servers detect such, you get the nessage you got. Apple maintains a database of officially unlocked iPhones, and if your phone's IMEI number is not in that database, your attempts to update or restore will error out with that message.
So, either get the phone officially unlocked, or get a sim card from the carrier the phone was originally locked to if you want to activate it.

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