said by gaforces:I dunno about this story, something smells of BS.
She let her service lapse. From AT&T's point of view, she was a "new customer". It sucks, but it is the way things are.
As for the changes, apparently AT&T is retiring the older ADSL equipment as they replace it. How can they continue to provide "legacy"service to customers when the legacy hardware is gone? IP-DSLAM isn't the same as traditional ADSL, and traditional ADSL modems won't work with IP-DSLAM service.
My take on this is simply that the customer should take the AT&T upgrade notice very seriously, and decide whether the upgrade is worth the effort (don't wait until they disconnect you to upgrade!) or a change of provider is in order.