After 2 years the regular monthly plan contract with at&t, I switched to a pay as you go (buying call card minutes) plan in July 08. In mid october, my phone suddenly stopped working, asking me to "activate my plan". when calling at&t customer service, took 2 hours to determine someone gave away my phone number to another customer. They insisted that this customer was able to walk into a store, give the right confidential information to (my) phone number on one of their phones. What was this? Identity theft? It was established I've had this phone number for over 2 years. When I'd eventually hang up and was given promises someone would call back to resolve this...no one ever did. I called back multiple times during the course of a full week. One "supervisor" initially wanted me to go to the nearest AT&T store ad they'd give a new sim card and a $20 credit and I refused because it was crucial to keep my phome number. So, a week later, one of their techs in texas realized that someone transposed one of the digits when they transfered the phone number from this other customer. So gave me back my number, but wouldn't give me backthe minutes I had originally had on the phone because I had to now "activate" the phone again, and the only way to activate this (as they saw it a new account) was to pick a more expensive plan which I had to stay into for 30 days. As soon as I finish my minutes, I'm throwing away the phone and transfering my number to my new virgin mobile phone I got for xmas.