Major Iphone 3g problem..phone became locked?

[Khurram]

I took a look at my iphone and it showed a screen where it shows a picture of a usb switch saying connect to itunes...as though it went into recovery mode.

When I connect to itunes it says it cannot obtain information from the iphone because the neccessary informaiton is not there or the sim is locked.
I never had a pin on my sim and I don't know what's going on!?
Any ideas?

How can I force a restore.
The phone will not even show up in itunes..

 

[TEG]

Every SIM has a password (actually 2, one for the user, one for administration). If you are on at&t you can simply get the code from your at&t account page online or call support and they can walk you through unlocking the SIM.

TEG

 

[Khurram]

but there is no option to enter a sim.
When I connect to itunes it just says the iphone information cannot be obtained and I have no further options.

I'm stuck on the slide for emergency screen

 

[Khurram]

The exact message i'm getting from itunes is

The Iphone cannot be used with itunes because the information required for activation could not be obtained from the phone.

 

[Khurram]

So after 52 mins on the phone with att and apple they came to the conclusion that my sim card somehow deactivated itself and I would need to get a new sim from the att store tomorrow.
What a pain in the ass