Hi all,

 Swapped out my existing Spark SIM a couple of weeks ago, as I wasn't getting 5G in 5G areas – my iPhone was bought from Spark.

Same number, of course – swapping out the SIM worked, and I now get 5G.

However, iMessage fails to activate correctly, and as a result, I can't send/receive iMessages using my mobile number – I have to use my other linked email addresses for example, which is obviously not ideal.

I went to Spark Ponsonby and got the SIM swapped (again, number is the same) just in case it was related to that – no dice.

All sorts of tests have been done by both L1 and L2 Apple Support (including L3 – Engineering) – nothing wrong on Apple's side.

A trouble ticket was opened by Spark on November 3rd (I have the number if someone from Spark here would be kind enough to assist), but checking the Spark site, there has been absolutely no activity on it whatsoever, and messaging chat for an update (i.e. to get any notes from the trouble ticket) has been a total dead end.

Specifically, these are the things that Engineering asked to have investigated:

• Confirm that international SMS is working
• Connectivity from the carrier to the “open market” must be verified as working. (What is the "open market", anyway?)
• If the carrier confirms these are working, they should open an internal investigation to determine why iMessage registration of the device failed.

(Apologies for the way this is worded, that's how it was provided to me by Apple).

I'm at my wits' end, and all I'd like is for iMessage to activate so my mobile number can be used.

If anyone from Spark sees this, and could assist, I'd be really grateful.

Thank you.