Activating iMessage and Facetime on an iPhone without activated Sim

[Audeath]

Hi guyz,
i sold my 4s to my sister because she wants to give it to her daughter to use it as an iPod. I've activated the phone with an unactive Sim card and sent it to her. Everything works fine except that iMessage and Facetime always says it's waiting for activation and even if she selects the Apple ID email in send and receive nothing works. I've recreated this situation on another of my iPhone and the same thing happened and the only way i've found to activate it is to put my current working Sim in the phone, turn off iMessage and turn it back on. At that point everything was activated and working even after i've rebooted the device. The only problem is that if i disable iMessage and try to re-enable it i have to do the same process of reinserting a working Sim in it.

Is there another solution to this or does an iPhone always have to send the Activation SMS to the server to make iMessage and Facetime work?

 

[J. A.]

Here's how to set up iMessage on an iDevice:
Apple United Kingdom - iOS 8 - Messages

This is what you can do when it's not working:
If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime - Apple Support

Here a few other things to check:
The iPhone has to be erased before settig it up without SIM card. (Settings - General - Reset - Erase all Content and Settings)
When setting it up, you'll need to insert a functioning SIM card, just temporarily.
When you've finished the setup process, you can remove the card, and it should work without problems.

From time to time, you'll get a popup, telling you to insert a card. Pressing "Cancel" should remove it.