By early yesterday evening, the noise on the phone was worse than ever, the caller-ID function ceased to work, and the DSL was dead as a doornail!
This morning was pretty much the same as yesterday evening, until about 10:00am. The telephone now has no more crackling, but doesn't have a dial tone either, just a low-pitched hum. However, and hope I'm not speaking too soon, the internet has been fairly stable since the phone completely "died". Need the phone to be working also though, in case I get a call from a job offer!
I must really enjoy stress... considering I haven't dropped AT&T after these years of crappy service! Bad thing, no other major broadband options here that I'd be comfortable to switch over to.