WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved a merger Tuesday of Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless Services.
The $41 billion deal, which gained Justice Department approval on Monday, would create the largest U.S. cell phone company with 47 million customers nationwide.
The merger will let customers of Cingular get wireless access to the Internet at higher speeds than currently available, and customers of AT&T Wireless, which has been plagued with network problems recently, see an improvement in coverage.
AT&T Wireless customers will need to get new phones from Cingular so they can use its GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications, technology. But if they get a GSM-capable phone their service in areas still served by AT&T's older TDMA, or Time Division Multiple Access, network, could become spotty since most new GSM phones won't work on the older network.
