When is the iMessage activation going to be fixed?

Question

I am still waiting for iMessage to activate. Anyone got any up to date remedies or is there a statement from Apple?

Answer 1

Let me clarify - my iMessage works with email addresses, but not with my phone number.
As I understand the iMessage/Facetime phone number activation it follows this process:
Your phone looks up its location using time-zone settings
It then sends a request via Internet (wifi or cellular) to Apple's local servers
It waits for an SMS to come back from Apple's servers with a key
It sends the key from SMS back to Apple's servers
Your phone number is now linked with your imessage account
To me this suggests that my carrier (Telstra Australia) is blocking the SMS with the key in it.  In the UK a lot of users of O2's TuGo service (which is a phone number/text message redirection service) are having these issues because TuGo is screwing with the texts.  If it is the case that Telstra is blocking the text message (they may have some kind of spam rejection thing in place), then it's probably going to take Apple talking to Telstra to stop the blocking.
Alternatively it means that the Apple servers aren't sending/accepting the keys which would require Apple's intervention.
Either way I think the best hope for an enduring resolution is to follow http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4268 and then contact Apple, and explaining which carrier you're on when your issue is escalated.