Unable to enter phone number in iOS with country code with '+' in the beginning

I have been trying to enter simple phone number with country code in iOS text field but it fails to enter character ‘+’.

For instance, I want to enter +1701343434 in text field.

It looks like when it tries to enter + in system keyboard, it cannot find it. Has this worked for anyone or if you have suggestion please do let me know?

Appium: 1.6.3
MacOSx 10.12.3
xcode: 8.2.1

[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element {"using":"xpath","value":"//XCUIElementTypeTextField[@value='Phone Number']"}
[MJSONWP] Calling AppiumDriver.findElement() with args: ["xpath","//XCUIElementTypeTextField[@value='Phone Number']","9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3"]
[XCUITest] Executing command 'findElement'
[BaseDriver] Valid locator strategies for this request: xpath, id, name, class name, -ios predicate string, -ios class chain, accessibility id
[BaseDriver] Waiting up to 20000 ms for condition
[JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [POST /element] to [POST http://localhost:8100/session/1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF/element] with body: {"using":"xpath","value":"//XCUIElementTypeTextField[@value='Phone Number']"}
[JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: {"value":{"ELEMENT":"2C7DBFAD-43D4-4BAE-A1F8-934E8862B5A9","type":"XCUIElementTypeTextField","label":""},"sessionId":"1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF","status":0}
[MJSONWP] Responding to client with driver.findElement() result: {"ELEMENT":"2C7DBFAD-43D4-4BAE-A1F8-934E8862B5A9","type":"XCUIElementTypeTextField","label":""}
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element 200 872 ms - 167 
[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element {"using":"xpath","value":"//XCUIElementTypeTextField[@value='Phone Number']"}
[MJSONWP] Calling AppiumDriver.findElement() with args: ["xpath","//XCUIElementTypeTextField[@value='Phone Number']","9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3"]
[XCUITest] Executing command 'findElement'
[BaseDriver] Valid locator strategies for this request: xpath, id, name, class name, -ios predicate string, -ios class chain, accessibility id
[BaseDriver] Waiting up to 20000 ms for condition
[JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [POST /element] to [POST http://localhost:8100/session/1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF/element] with body: {"using":"xpath","value":"//XCUIElementTypeTextField[@value='Phone Number']"}
[JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: {"value":{"ELEMENT":"7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A","type":"XCUIElementTypeTextField","label":""},"sessionId":"1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF","status":0}
[MJSONWP] Responding to client with driver.findElement() result: {"ELEMENT":"7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A","type":"XCUIElementTypeTextField","label":""}
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element 200 848 ms - 167 
[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element/7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A/click {"id":"7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A"}
[MJSONWP] Driver proxy active, passing request on via HTTP proxy
[XCUITest] Executing command 'proxyReqRes'
[JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element/7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A/click] to [POST http://localhost:8100/session/1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF/element/7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A/click] with body: {"id":"7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A"}
[JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: {"status":0,"id":"7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A","value":"","sessionId":"1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF"}
[JSONWP Proxy] Replacing sessionId 1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF with 9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/element/7BC8EB53-0F06-425A-A0A0-B3EBB6519E8A/click 200 1483 ms - 118 
[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/timeouts {"type":"implicit","ms":20000}
[MJSONWP] Calling AppiumDriver.timeouts() with args: ["implicit",20000,"9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3"]
[XCUITest] Executing command 'timeouts'
[BaseDriver] Set implicit wait to 20000ms
[MJSONWP] Responding to client with driver.timeouts() result: null
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/timeouts 200 1 ms - 76 
[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/execute {"script":"+447992184740","args":[]}
[MJSONWP] Calling AppiumDriver.execute() with args: ["+447992184740",[],"9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3"]
[XCUITest] Executing command 'execute'
[HTTP] <-- POST /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3/execute 501 3 ms - 112 
[HTTP] --> DELETE /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3 {}
[MJSONWP] Calling AppiumDriver.deleteSession() with args: ["9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3"]
[BaseDriver] Event 'quitSessionRequested' logged at 1491924661682 (16:31:01 GMT+0100 (BST))
[JSONWP Proxy] Proxying [DELETE /session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3] to [DELETE http://localhost:8100/session/1C5A3A30-3098-440E-8847-268B9A1FBCEF] with no body
[JSONWP Proxy] Got response with status 200: "{\n  \"value\" : {\n\n  },\n  \"sessionId\" : \"39A66722-403C-47F3-9196-BB137C11EC34\",\n  \"status\" : 0\n}"
[XCUITest] Shutting down sub-processes
[XCUITest] Shutting down xcodebuild process (pid 29623)
[XCUITest] xcodebuild exited with code 'null' and signal 'SIGTERM'
[XCUITest] Shutting down iproxy process (pid 29605)
[XCUITest] iproxy exited with code 'null'
[XCUITest] Found WDA derived data folder: '/Users/simon.joshi/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WebDriverAgent-cvqckynzuuktkogfpkkkgyompmoj'
[XCUITest] Setting '755' permissions to '/Users/simon.joshi/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WebDriverAgent-cvqckynzuuktkogfpkkkgyompmoj/Logs/Test/Attachments' folder
[iOSLog] Stopping iOS log capture
[Appium] Removing session 9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3 from our master session list
[BaseDriver] Event 'quitSessionFinished' logged at 1491924662080 (16:31:02 GMT+0100 (BST))
[MJSONWP] Received response: null
[MJSONWP] But deleting session, so not returning
[MJSONWP] Responding to client with driver.deleteSession() result: null
[HTTP] <-- DELETE /wd/hub/session/9427e141-f9b2-44de-9148-040e7133bde3 200 400 ms - 76 

Thanks in advance