The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T Wireless and Cingular are in merger talks: The industry has been predicting consolidation in the crowded cell phone market for ages. If such a deal goes down, T-Mobile, the other operator in the U.S. using the same GSM technology, would be left behind. This article notes, however, that T-Mobile could also step in and try to make a bid for Cingular.
AT&T Wireless has the fastest widespread data network in the U.S. right now with a national EDGE deployment. Cingular's data presence is quite slim, although they are reportedly building out EDGE.