Ok, so it only took me several months to figure out that I really had to call 617-788-0151 (not 0152). The misleading part is that you get through to some guy's voicemail (and it doesn't mention he works for DOL) and so, I would just hang up assuming the number I was given was wrong.
Today, I just pressed 0 as soon as I heard the voicemail and got through to the nice lady. The good news is that my case was approved! She said it was approved on 3/23/2005. My application details were as follows:
Date received by DOL: 9/24/2004
State: MA
Application type: NON-RIR, EB3
So, it took almost exactly 6 months to process from the date it was entered in the system (9/24/2004). My colleague's application was entered on 9/13/2004 and our lawyer received the approval notice on 3/2/2005. If one allows a week for the mailing to occur, his actual approval date was around 2/23/2005 and the current application processing rate can be calculated to be: (3/23/2005-2/23/2005)/(9/24/2004-9/13/2004) = 28/11 = 2.5 days for each day your application was entered since 9/13/2005.
In other words, as a very rough estimate, if your case was entered on 9/27/2004 (assuming, of course: MA, NON-RIR, EB3), I would expect to hear something around 14*2.5 = 35 days from 2/23/2005, that is around March 30, 2005.
Another example, let suppose your case was entered 10/6/2004 and again assuming, of course, MA, NON-RIR, EB3. The difference between 10/6/2004 and 9/13/2004 is 23 days. I would expect to hear 23*2.5 = 58 days from 2/23/2005, that is around 4/20/2005.
One would have to do something similar for each type of application (RIR, different states etc.). All you need is data for two recent approvals of the same type.
Hope this helps.