Here is an update on the porting of my number from ATT to Cingular (I love the new service, which is a significant increase in quality and quite a bit less money for the same amount of service) which I mentioned before. I received about 40 email from people who had problems like mine when I first posted on this, and also reported ATT to the FCC, who apparently got into trouble overall for these issues with the FCC during the time I was in number portability hell.

Porting from ATT was a nightmare, including about 80 hours on the phone, mostly on hold, winding up with a 12 hour call with ATT on the final day, before I was finally finished. It got so ridiculous, that the next to last day, I called ATT, went out for three hours to do grocery shopping, etc, and returned to find out that yes, I was still on hold. However, for the most part, I felt trapped endlessly for hours each day with my landline, and yet had no cell phone to make other calls on during this time. And of course, I'm still fighting with ATT to get the early termination fee I paid back, as I don't believe I owe it. Good luck if you decide to get your number out of ATT. They are awful. Cingular has so far been great.