Did it via chat and it was pretty straight forward.

During the chat the agent posted this and I bolded the relevant section:

"I would like to let you know that once the cancellation is completed, we won’t be able to use the number again in the future and All existing Voice Mail messages will be lost and cannot be retrieved after cancellation."

Does AT&T not recycle phone numbers any more?
In the past, one of the joys of getting a new number was dealing with the collections calls and baby mama drama that caused the number to be available.

Or, did they mean that 'you' will no longer have access to that number?
IE: You can't port it to another carrier?

With what seems like 5 quadrillion other phone carriers to choose from, and the ability to keep the existing number with each transfer... it will be a long time before you work your way through all of those companies and get back to AT&T.

If you want to keep your number, you need to port it over to a new carrier/provider first... Typically your new provider will have a process to do that.

They may indeed recycle the number at some point if you didn't request a move - but you won't have access to anything related to your use of the number.

I've already ported over all the numbers from AT&T that I am keeping, The number in question is not one of them and I was canceling it along with the plan.

He was asking me if there was a family member or friend that would want to takeover that line. After I said no, he posted the quoted part above.

ATT sucks.

They just mean you and them. It goes to the general pool of available numbers after a period of time.

General info for anyone looking to change carriers.

AT&T will port your account's line numbers, but anyone who "got on that plan" and cannot provide the PIN, AT&T agents nor support can access the account and even see any information, let alone port numbers.*

(divorce, breakups, and other similar situations where someone can treat you like you're in the Drive-thru...)

Make sure you have a "working PIN" by calling them and ensuring that they can access the tools.

If you one simply cancels the line, it is in "disconnected/reserved" status and still under the decision control of the account holder and can be "retrieved/reactivated". After 59 days it gets tossing into the deep abyss of recycle pool.

Most work like this.

*If you are "riding" on an individual's plan, even if you are paying them for them, if you don't have a PIN, or if they decide to cancel your line (and they change the PIN", you are SOL, even if you ported the number that you owned with another carrier.

@SpinZone
"He was asking me if there was a family member or friend that would want to takeover that line."
That's account retention. They want to keep that fish on the hook.

Thanks, good info and that makes sense.