The saddest part? This is sort of an improvement for me.

The AT&T Port Administration department gets to work at 7:30am. Maybe it’ll actually happen today.

After 30 minutes on hold with the iPhone Activation Line (877-800-3701), which beats the 60 minutes they predicted, my initial iPhone activation attempt has been cancelled. It only took 53 hours to get this far.

The woman on the phone, who sounded exhausted, was reluctant to cancel the request, but once learning it was possible I insisted. Based on everything else I’ve done with technology, this mess was well past the point of needing a reboot.

Einstein’s definition of insanity:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The full story is that I called the standard AT&T service number, (877-419-4500) and finally got someone who could tell me what was going on. The higher-ups must have finally given them something to work with. My account had been flagged as “needs more info” and I would have to call another number to follow up. The other number was the iPhone Activation Line, which she transferred me to.

Engadget’s iPhone activation poll shows just under 50% had a smooth activation. Nearly 40% were also locked out of doing anything with their phones.

Thanks to the equally suffering Charles Gordon at CrazyGadgetGuru.com for the link.

I’m pressing publish on this post and re-starting my activation. Deep breath…

An hour later… Yeah, as if. So the port hasn’t cancelled yet, or something. Whatever it is, iTunes can’t activate me. My Verizon phone still works, sort of. I can call but incoming calls go straight to voicemail, SMS still works both ways. iPhone’s still a brick. Silly me for getting hopeful.

Something to try when I’m home and have a dependable connection:

iPhone activation tip
Apparently the secret to getting your iPhone activated as soon as possible is to leave it plugged into your computer and connected to iTunes until activation is complete. A support person from AT&T told me that the their system works by going through a queue and pinging every unactivated phone in turn to activate them. If the system can’t see your phone, you lose your place in the queue and have to wait for the next time.

I’m still doubtful, but it can’t hurt to try.

Day 3, the AT&T people on the phone can’t seem to do anything and they’re starting to show signs of fatigue. Be nice to them, it’s not their fault. The “iPhone Activation Line” is basically down, I called this morning (Sunday) and there was a 60 minute wait. I got a person right away at the other number, while not admitting it per se, she had obviously been answering calls from distraught iPhone customers one after another.

As I said prior, Apple’s brand will survive this largely unscathed, the iPhone is just really, really astonishing. AT&T better have some heavy-duty spin ready for Monday morning or their reputation is going to go further down the drain. As pointed out by Harris, who is also waiting for two iPhone accounts to activate, “AT&T has 302,000 employees, get 50 smart ones in a room and fix this.”

I wonder if Apple had a plan for dealing with this or otherwise anticipated it. Something like a breach of contract clause which would free them and the iPhone from the shackles of AT&T? Harris again, “there’s only one CEO in America with the balls to pull that off.” At this point I really hope so.

Thankfully we’re visiting friends at their lake house where internet and cell-phone access is limited. Otherwise I’d probably be at my desk, pressing reload constantly, pissed off and muttering. Sort of like macademic. (wink wink)

Anyway, here we are going into the third day without service, if this thing actually starts working before Monday morning, I’ll be very surprised. Just for amusement, here’s what the email I got two days ago:

Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 8:56 PM EDT on June 30. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you’d like to make other arrangements.

Read more of my pathetic iPhone saga.

Day two, as far as I know we now have 2 successful activations out of 8.

The newly successful activation was blocked from doing anything last night and so was essentially a first try this morning. The rest of us who tried early seem to be locked in some sort of iPhone activation queue of doom.

News of the activation problems is spreading:

• This Digg thread, AT&T Activation Clumsiness hurts iPhone, says nothing, but it will have a zillion diggs by lunch. If things don’t get better the entire Digg top ten will be iPhone woes.
• Tuaw: While some sit in raptured bliss, others await activation
• Massive thread on MacRumors forums: iPhone Activation Issues
• Engadget: iPhone activations hosed until morning?
• Plenty more here: iphone activation – Google Blog Search
• Apple support is lit up: Apple – Support – Discussions – Phone

I’m trying to figure out who this is worst for. I’m thinking AT&T, who should be spinning furiously about how the activation problems are the fault of other carriers, the number transfer system or whatever. Their market value is going to get hammered on Monday. Have fun with the brand rebuilding since you’re going to be fondly known as the POS that kept us from using our new iPhones.

I just called the iPhone Activation Line, 877-800-3701, got a recorded message and disconnected. Nice. Also tried 877-419-4500 which put me on hold, I’ll try calling again later.

It is sort of funny how the communal joy of this experience has turned into communal frustration for so many. No, it’s not really funny at all. I want this very expensive, beautiful and fully useless thing to start working.

One of the first things I tried on Michelle’s iPhone was to use Safari to access the local file system. No dice, urls like file:/// yield this:

Getting iPhones turned out to be pretty easy. I got to the Soho Apple store at 4:30pm, the line was about a fifth of a mile, stretching almost all the way around the block, up Greene St, across Houston and back down Mercer St. But Apple was ready, they’d cleared almost the entire line in 45 minutes. Two friends walked into the 5th Avenue store after 8 and walked out with iPhones in less than 15 minutes. The AT&T stores were slower, I walked by the line outside the AT&T store on Broadway at Astor and there were still nearly a hundred people lined up on the sidewalk. Walking home was somewhat nerve-wracking. The special iPhone bag just screamed “mug me.”

What has turned out to be difficult is getting the phone activated. I’m pressing publish on this post nearly six hours after first attempting to activate. Michelle’s iPhone somehow activated right away, and it is truely amazing — totally exceeding my hype-inflated expectations. However, counting six other friends and co-workers who got iPhones tonight, Michelle is the only one who lucked out and got hers to work, all the rest of us are still waiting on activation. One for eight. That’s beyond lousy.

At this point I’m too tired to be angry. I’m really disappointed that AT&T wasn’t more on the ball with this. I’m upset that Apple locks out all functionality prior to activation. I’m not the slightest bit surprised that Verizon probably had something to do with borking this up.

AT&T’s phone support people are somehow remaining chipper and polite despite an inevitable deluge of iPhone support requests. The last person I spoke with finally admitted that the transfer system was overwhelmed and it was going to be a while. Overall they’ve been a pleasure to talk to, even if they haven’t been able to help at all.

The question arises: Would we have been happier had we been unable to buy iPhones, rather than having iPhones which we’re unable to use. I’m leaning towards the first.