7/2/07 1 PM: The last day and a half have been truly amazing. After talking with no less than nine AT&T employees on various toll-free numbers, being told multiple times that my account was not up-to-date (in spite of having the previous AT&T customer service rep tell me they had fixed it), two different in-person trips to an AT&T Store, over twenty-four hours with no cell service at all and a new SIM card later, I’m finally activated.

Would love to share with you exactly what the problem was, but I’m honestly not sure. As it turns out, I have to wonder if it was as simple as a bad SIM card. Once that was replaced I experienced the same 5-minute activation process that so many others have.

To be fair, all but two of the AT&T folks were very pleasant and seemed genuinely interested in trying to resolve the problem, escalating my case at least twice, sharing super-secret toll-free numbers that had little or no wait and more. Based on the information each gave me, I’m placing a great deal of the blame on my delay at the feet of AT&T, since I was constantly told the issue was my service plan, and not the phone.

In any case, the iPhone is finally up and humming along as all sorts of information fills it to the brim. Much of what I could say at this point has been written elsewhere, so I’ll leave you with the suggestion that if you are still a resident of Activation Hell, push AT&T to give you a new SIM card.