The FCC will make its own demands. Among other things, the combined company will have to divest all its assets in an additional dozen or so markets. It will be barred from buying airwaves in areas where it already owns a hefty chunk of spectrum.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is expected to partly dissent. He argues that the deal hurts competition by giving Cingular too much control in territories served by its owners, SBC and BellSouth.

Some consumer advocates agree. The two Bells are unlikely to offer cellphone prices and packages that compete with their 100-year-old wire-line networks.

''By approving this deal, federal regulators are saying goodbye to the price reductions and better service options consumers have grown to expect,'' says Gene Kimmelman, director of Consumers Union.

Atlanta-based Cingular will wind up controlling about one-third of the customers and more than a quarter of the airwaves in the USA, giving it plenty of room to grow. That sort of latitude will be critical as services and technologies, including next-generation services, evolve.

Measured in raw spectrum, Cingular will be formidable. In some markets, it will wind up with as much as 70 megahertz of the airwaves. That's easily double the average of some other carriers. Verizon, for example, controls about 35 megahertz in New York, though it's adding 10 megahertz soon.

Still, numbers alone don't portend the future, especially in the go-go world of wireless.

Verizon, which has been gold-plating its network for years, has a commanding lead in customer satisfaction, and the merger doesn't change that, says Roger Entner, a wireless analyst with Yankee Group.

''For a long time, we had one gorilla and five monkeys,'' Entner says, referring to Verizon and the bevy of rivals, including Cingular and AT&T Wireless, that have sought to surpass it.

The post-merger Cingular ''is definitely an ape,'' he says. ''But it remains to be seen if it will turn into a gorilla.''

The differentiators? Network quality and customer service.

''Verizon has redefined the market around quality leadership, and for the time being, Cingular can't challenge Verizon there,'' Entner says.

Verizon's customers have proved exceedingly loyal, which is one reason its ''churn'' figures -- the portion of customers who drop the service each month -- is so low.

Verizon's churn is around 1.4%. Cingular and AT&T Wireless, which have been beset by service problems, have churn rates of 2.8% and 3.7%, respectively.

Verizon has managed to use its service quality to attract customers in record numbers. In the second quarter, Verizon added 1.5 million customers. Cingular added 428,000. AT&T Wireless added 15,000.

In the quarter just ended, Cingular added 657,000 customers; AT&T Wireless added 170,000. Verizon will report its third-quarter figures later this week.

Given Verizon's ability to add customers so quickly, Entner says, he wouldn't be surprised to see Verizon reclaim its No. 1 spot within 18 months.

It's unclear what immediate effects, if any, the Cingular-AT&T Wireless merger will have on customers of the two companies.

Given the huge integration task ahead, the merger could create confusion on billing and services, particularly for AT&T Wireless customers who will be absorbed by Cingular, says Jane Zweig, CEO of Herschel Shosteck Associates, which tracks the wireless industry.

Cingular will try to integrate quickly, but any merger of this size always has kinks, she notes. ''There is tremendous potential for confusion,'' she says.

Source: USA TODAY

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