I was on my way to a potential new client to do a demo on an iPad development and NIGHTMARE - my iPad would not connect to the internet using 3G sim card !!!
I get the error”you are not subscribed to cellular service”
WTF ?!!?!?!!
My iPad was working perfectly since I purchased it and I just topped it up with 100mb of data just to be safe – so what the heck is going on ???
I called the Vodacom Customer care and after listening to a million options Press 1 for this and Press 2 for that no options applied to my problem.
Luckily I remembered the Vodacom Technical help number (082 155) which I phone and within 30 seconds, I was sorted.
The EASY FIX:
On the iPad go to your Setting, click on Cellular Data and then click on APN.
No matter what they told you in the past, the setting must be: iPhone.Vodacom.za (not internet)
If you now go back to your web browser, it SHOULD simply work (you might need to give it a second or two and might need to switch off your iPad and boot again).
If this DOES NOT work then:
Call 082 155 (if you are on Vodacom) and wait till you hear the iPhone options. Press that and then when the operator comes on, tell him/her that you would like to register your SIM card for the iPhone APN. He will ask you for your number, and some security questions and then you will be done. You will hear the usual “Wait between 1 and 6 hours and then try again”
Once you have done that, simply go to the EASY FIX step above and enter your APN settings.
This will sort you out and you can once again surf away on the iPad 
What this has changed all of a sudden ? no idea….
But as I like to say “You know what is the Golden Rules ?” “He who has the Gold makes the Rules !”
could this be more appropriate to Cellular companies ? I think not !
Awesome, thanks. Worked perfectly
By: Graham Paterson on January 19, 2011
at 1:39 pm
Thanks so much!! After endless hours at vodacom trying to sort the problem out, 3 seconds after reading your post it’s fixed and my iPad is connected
By: Chantelle on July 13, 2011
at 11:05 am
Wow! Thanks for telling me what Vodacom staff are clearly not trained to say because the organisation is managed by credits. I owe you!
By: Robert Greig on July 15, 2011
at 10:17 pm
excellent article, really enjoyed reading it. will be back to read future posts.
By: Wendie Derrington on August 1, 2011
at 11:44 pm
Didn’t work for me! I stuck in ‘internet’ in the APN and it worked first time!
By: Grand Polar on August 27, 2011
at 7:21 pm
Many thanks. It works perfectly well
By: Emeka on September 9, 2011
at 11:28 am
Liron,
Thank you so much, followed your instructions and after a quick reboot, I am up and running!!!
Love your work…
By: Craig McRobert on September 12, 2011
at 3:19 pm
Worked like a charm!!!!
thanks for the info!!!
By: Eldin on October 21, 2011
at 10:25 am
Dude, you rock! Such a simple solution to a problem that has been bugging me for days! Thank you!
By: Mike on November 8, 2011
at 8:53 pm
always a pleasure – never a chore !
By: thetechieguy on November 8, 2011
at 9:27 pm
Thanks Liron – I have spent hours trying to sort this out and eventually Googled the problem and found your solution.
By: Leonard Nunn on November 22, 2011
at 9:14 am
Excellent! it worked first time. Thanks a million
By: Keith on November 23, 2011
at 5:52 am
Thank you sooooo much. Stuck at airport and ipad not working. Fixed works like a charm. Again thanks for the assistance. John
By: John on November 30, 2011
at 7:04 am
Thanks. Saved me a lot of hassle👍
By: John on December 9, 2011
at 8:01 am
you helped me out so much. but I used “internet” on mine; the option didnt work.
Thanks so much
By: The Grand Guru on December 14, 2011
at 11:41 pm
So update to the above my iPad mobile data stopped working posibly after iOS 5 upgrade, and only way to get it working is to change APN back to ‘internet’.
So no mater what they tell you elsewhere if you are using iPad and are having issues with mobile data connection change APN to ‘internet’ switch off than on your mobile data and voila all is happy again…….
By: Dbld on December 22, 2011
at 8:47 am
It seems to swing between these two APN. I even had to change mine back internet and then when the error happened I changed it back to iPhone.Vodacom.za – so who knows which one is right but at least we have options to try !
By: thetechieguy on December 22, 2011
at 8:53 am
Thanks mate you help me allot
By: marius on January 3, 2012
at 8:40 am
My iPad settings went all craze for the first time in a year,it changed to iPhone .vodacom.za,I had to change it Apn as just Internet ,and now working back as usual…..I will guided along by this post,many thanks
By: Muhammed on January 14, 2012
at 3:03 pm
Wow! Thanks for the awesome post.
My ipad is finally working:)
By: naz on January 15, 2012
at 5:40 pm
I called Vodacom yesterday after viewing this site….thank u…I have one more problem though…- can’t upload fotos on Facebook using my ipad
By: nandi mbonane on February 6, 2012
at 1:16 pm
“internet” worked for me NOT iphone.vodacom.za
By: Danny Mchunu on February 7, 2012
at 6:00 pm
Good to know
By: thetechieguy on February 7, 2012
at 7:55 pm
In my case it worked vice versa.
I could not connect to the internet after upgrading my Ipad2 to IOS5.01
I read your advice, but it did not help me because my APN settings was set for “iPhone.Vodacom.za”.
so I contact the Callcentre and the guy told me to change it to “internet”. Problem solved!!!
By: Theo on February 21, 2012
at 7:57 am
its seems that for some the one works and not the other and some visa versa. Cant get a straight answer out of Vodacom why this is…
By: thetechieguy on February 21, 2012
at 8:00 am
Thanks!!!!
By: Xemtariuy on March 15, 2012
at 12:55 pm
Thanks for taking the time out to help the “not so IT inclined” wanna bees…I found this site very very easy on google and your answer very usefull, although mine eventually work with “internet” in the APN subject line…
Keep up the tips!
By: Lielie on April 15, 2012
at 7:47 pm
Also found iPhone.vodacom.za didn’t work and Internet did.
By: Graham on April 19, 2012
at 10:08 pm
I had to change my APN to “internet” then it started working again
By: Ian on May 27, 2012
at 8:22 am
Fan-Bloody-Tastic! Battling for ages and waiting my 1 to 4 hours to see if my apn settings have been activated….ever hopeful!
By: Cindy Lewis on May 30, 2012
at 10:44 am
just did the “internet” thing on the APN setting for iPad 3 16Gig and its grafting! (working yay!)_
just to add spent best part of 45min tooing and froing with vodacom customer care. friggen muppets
By: toastie on June 21, 2012
at 5:36 pm
Thanks “internet” worked on i Pad 3… someone really should tell the vodacom muppets.
By: greenzulu on June 21, 2012
at 5:37 pm
M sister arrived from Dubai for vacation…. She was at Vodacom and was sold a micro sim and a 1gb data bundle…. It connected at the Vodacom store, but nowdoesn’t want to work…..both iphone.vodacom.za and internet dont work… what to do?
By: Mohammed on July 17, 2012
at 3:18 pm
I assume you called their customer services ? Tell them to re-register that SIM on the network. If you have access to an iPhone, stick that SIM in there and see if that works. This way you know if its the iPad or the SIM
(assuming that iPad isnt locked to a network in any way)
By: thetechieguy on July 18, 2012
at 5:14 pm
Ironically mine came preset with iphone.vodacom.co.za but didn’t work. When I phoned the callcentre they said change it to internet, and it worked. Go figure???
By: Paul on July 24, 2012
at 3:02 pm
thats my problem with this – there is no one clear straight answer.
By: thetechieguy on July 24, 2012
at 4:42 pm
hiii I am from india.I faced this issue after i upgraded my OS version to IOS 6.WIFI is working perfectly for me, however i cant connect through sim.Byd eafult the APN option is blank,i changed it to internet and still it not wokring for me , can u help me out here ?
By: sl on January 16, 2013
at 6:12 am
hi – the setting here are for South Africa only. You have to check with your local provider what to put in
By: TheTechieGuy on January 16, 2013
at 7:58 am