After waiting for 24 hours+ for activation and talking to several AT&T reps, I followed the second method a few hours ago and was up and running in moments. The emthod is detailed in the AT&T customer support forums (which are currently full of very, very angry customers).

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I went the #2 route yesterday after almost 24 hrs of unanticipated agony. Guy on the phone said the "feature" was being worked on and there was nothing he could do at the time. He called me back 30 minutes later telling me that the "feature" thing was done and my iphone was then activated.

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It took me 44 hours before I could get activated. It required 5 calls to AT&T and 2 calls to the 1-877 phone number posted in this article. AT&T had better be glad that I am a huge apple fan girl or else I would have returned the phone. For those of you that are still waiting, I will say that the phone is worth it. I am in awe.

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804 comments and counting about people who are trying various things to get theirs working:

http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97150

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Since my old phone did not have a SIM card, none of these methods will work for me right? I've been stuck for around 2 days now. I can make outgoing calls, but incoming still go to my old phone (not an AT&T phone). This will eventually work itself out right?

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Here's my activation story:

I tried to activate my phone today at 1PM (After reading all the activation issues, I called all my important contacts to let them know that I may be unreachable). I'm an existing AT&T customer and I went through the steps of activation and got the dreaded message: "Your activation needs additional processing" (not the exact words but the one most got).

I figured I'd just wait for an hour and see what happens. I did and nothing happened. Then I called the 877 number (the #2 route in this post) and was on hold for about 25 minutes. I got a very nice lady who asked me the basic information about my account and put me on hold several times to find out what was wrong with my account and finally came back and said my current plan with AT&T is not eligible for iPhone activation which is weird coz I have the same exact (voice) plan that's offered with iPhone (450 anytime minutes, 5000 n/w etc). Then she said I might have to go to the store to get the plan switched to something that's eligible for the iPhone.

I asked her to see if there's something she can do to avoid my trip to the AT&T store. After another 20 minutes of holding (for a total of 56 minutes on the call), she came back and said that she has figured it out and it was my "Auto bill-pay enrollment" (I have enrolled for automatic bill payment at at&t website) that was causing the software to think that I haven't paid my bills and hence the activation was failing. She corrected that and after another few minutes of holding was able to activate the phone.

So by 3PM today, I was able to use my iPhone to make & receive calls and text messages. I also setup my voice mail without any issues.

While I hit the dreaded activation issue, calling the 877 number and being patient and polite did the job for me. Overall, I'm a happy camper - thanks to one fine CSR lady at iPhone Activation Support Center.

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I followed close to the same as method two, but instead I had my first activation (with a number port from verizon which was taking almost 17 hours) cancelled so that I could activate with a new number and then port, which only took me 5 minutes. I now typed this comment on my working iPhone.

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I had a nightmare problem and finally got my activation after the sixth rep I talked to manually activated it. I was very nice to all the reps because I'm sure they were hammered. I felt sorry for them, honestly.

I sent an email to the chairman of AT&T expressing my frustration and sent a CC to Steve Jobs. I said I felt like a groom on his wedding night being told I'd have to wait one more day. All my emails to AT&T were bounced back but about an hour after sending my CC I got an email from Steve Jobs apologizing for making me nuts and saying he hoped we'd be patient until they fixed things because the iPhone is magic. After one day, I have to agree: the thing is better than I imagined. Even the Luddites I work with were impressed. Some might even buy computers just to get one. I, of course, will convince them to get Macs.

Thanks, Apple. And AT&T, you suck.

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Well now to add to the complete fiasco of Apple/AT&T the 877-300.... number has crashed........The true answer to all of the iPhony questions is "I apologize" there are no other resolutions....
Signed
54 hours and no service yet.....

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what? there are still friday iphones that are not activated yet?????? OMG AT&T...

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Monday morning, still no iPhone love. Yes, I personally know of four Friday iPhones, including myself, still not activated.

And there's a whole new kind of suck with AT&T this morning...

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Stoopid mac People and I-Life, listen you want a multi-functional phone that can use web, email and evrything go with the original all in one a TREO, and no don't use windows mobile that is crap also. Use a palm OS and get all functionality you wanted on your phone right out the box including having a nice 1.2 mb/sec broadband speed on a 3G network not a 128 kbps on AT&T. AT&T lost me as a customer years ago for crappy customer service, 5 years with Sprint and I could not be happier with anything they have to offer. Trust me the I-Phone is going to have loads of issues before they fix them all in subsequent bills. Treo700p or 755p you cannot get anybetter out of these 2 devices, I could not live without mine and yes Push email is available for the Palm OS as a free update.

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I was in the first group of eight people allowed into the AT&T store at 6PM Friday night and was in my car on my way home, iPhone on the seat beside me, by 6:10PM. I went through all of the headaches that everyone else went through and was just activated yesterday (Sunday) mid-afternoon. I'd talked to about eight different reps and was finally told that they would "manually activate" my phone. I was put through to the 877-800 number and held for over an hour. However, once someone got on the phone, I was activated in 15 minutes. My advice is to tell whoever you get on the phone that you have been waiting since Friday and you've been told that you are "supposed to be manually activated". I must say, this is the most amazing piece of technology I have ever seen- it rocks! Good luck, everyone!

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My wife's activation (Friday night) went without a hitch

Mine, on Saturday afternoon, went the distance, ending in the 3 unacceptable choices most of you have seen.

While on hold while the AT&T call center was contacting my local AT&T store, I noticed the phone icon had dropped off the left side of iTunes. For a lark, I connected the phone with an old iPod dock connector cable & it almost instantly finished the activation, & I mean I blinked & the screen came up with something like "Activation Successful" or the equivalent.

I waited a couple of minutes more 'til the woman came back on the line to tell her what had transpired, but I don't know if it made it to their database.

Good luck, it's great once you get over this hurdle!

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#12: I would recommend knowing how to spell the names that you call (groups of) people. It helps you get on with life without English teachers breathing down your neck (which can be quite annoying, I've had it happen to me). Just a piece of friendly advice.

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I was victimized by AT&Tingular for 47 hours.

I was horrified to see my Apple iPhone turned into an AT&T NoPhone(tm).

I had spoken with 16 different AT&Tingular representatives and various supervisors night and day who explained that it "was just a matter of time". I begin activation at 9:30pm on Friday, and not until I demanded that they escalate my number to their "special team" to find my activation request and kill it late Sunday afternoon did things begin to change. They assured me that my number was forwarded to "engineers who were brought in to work with numbers on a case by case basis".

My activation, as it turns out, was rejected because my existing AT&Tingular plan was "too old". So much for loyalties. I was an existing customer who was just adding the $20 iPhone data plan... "not available", even though being assured previously on several occasions that I should leave my existing plan in place rather than terminate my account by several AT&T reprentatives.

Even after canceling my account and starting a new plan at 4:30am Saturday, it still took over 40 hours to "process it".

The only efficiency I experinced was AT&Tingular deactivated both my original phones immediately on Friday evening, and left me without any service for the 47 hours. (No... the iPhone SIM card does not work in older phones, although the reps claimed they would).

I tried all the tricks, to no avail. In the end, brute force badgering was all that was understood.

8:30pm Sunday evening, and I was ushered into heaven.

In the end, I blame Apple for all of this. Why? Because they demonstrated that they could flawlessless excecute all the details of this launch, and nailed it with such precision, that I began to believe that others could do the same. AT&T proved me wrong. They just don't get it.

Now, back to the iPhone... WOW!

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i too am a blue-sim at&t customer who got the "additional time needed" prompt in iTunes.

I just called the 877 number above and was told that my "limbo state" was due to the fact that an updated plan (orange sim) was necessary to activate the iphone. An incredibly friendly assoc. hooked me up with a new plan for both my wife (who is clinging to her treo) and I.

Total time waiting for an email from Apple or AT&T: none. I found this blog instead and just called straight away.

Total time on phone: 19 mins.

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I also had lots of problem activating my iPhone and then I had some troubleshooting problems as well. I actually found a great site the helped me, Here is the page for iPhone Support:
http://www.fixya.com/support/apple/pdas

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Ok dig this...
I was one of those who sat around in line all day waiting for an iPhone. I got it then spent the next 6 days trying to activate it. Not just calling once every day but actually spending whole days for 6 days trying to get my iPhone working. Of course AT&T kept trying to blame Apple but I knew better. On the eve of the sixth day, the corporate sales rep from AT&T felt so bad for me he offered to take my phone home with him and get it set up for me. He couldn't do it. The one time the phone was working it only lasted for a day before it went off because AT&T put me on the wrong plan without data and it ate up my balance as I played with YouTube. I had to give up at that point. By this time I had taken 7 days off work thinking I'd have to invest that time sooner or later to get my phone working. As I write this it is August 12th and my iPhone still does not work. Quite frustrating.

I know many people have lost huge amounts of their time due to the incompetence of AT&T and I was wondering if this sounds like "class action" material to anyone.

Comments please.

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VFXgamer -

Sue for what? You had to wait a few days? Did you have to take time off from Starbucks? No one made you wait in line for a day to get a PHONE, yes a PHONE. We picked our up yesterday and activated it easily....and I didn' wait in line or 6 days for it to work.

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