*Yikes* I am sorry that this happened to you

I do now know who gave you the information about keeping your AT&T with DSL and porting that number over. I am assuming you told whomever you spoke with (the folks who gave you the advice), that you told them you had DSL on the line. And if they told you to port that number over, it in any situation is bad advice- and was sadly mistaken. But for now that's water under the bridge though, but I still feel your pain.

It does not matter which company you have DSL with, if that DSL line and the phone number you are porting over, are one in the same, the answer is always the same. Do not request a port on that number unless you want to likewise lose your DSL service. That's precisely what would have happened no matter if it were AT&T or some other DSL providing company.

Now, having said that, one can obtain what's called dryloop DSL. In simplest terms, this is DSL service without a corresponding voice number to go along with it. It is slightly more costly than a regular DSL line with voice as there is no bundling.

To bring this closer to home for me, my dad purchased Verizon Home Connect with porting the home phone number, which also included the DSL. I tried to tell my dad to not do it. He was like the phone service is only $19.95 a month and that's cheaper than what we pay now. Needless to say, the home number was ported, and the DSL was turned off so my parents lost Internet. My mom was like "GRRRRRRRRRRRRR", and my dad was like "Oops, my bad."

So I told them about "dryloop DSL" and my mom ordered that up. The downside was it took about 2 weeks to get the DSL back on again.