Judging from comments from message boards on both the AT&T Wireless site and on a great site called HowardForums.com, it's amazing how many people think that Cingular already owns AT&T Wireless. But the deal is far from closing. And there are still no guarantees. Sometimes, for example, the target company loses so much value in the meantime that the buyer can bail out. In this context, a recent report that AT&T Wireless is losing 150,000 customers per month is interesting.

Another sign of trouble: the AT&T Wireless store on 78th Street and Broadway closed. The funny thing is, the store always seemed to be full--not with prospective customers, but current customers complaining about service. While a profitable store is the best scenario, no store is better than a store actually used as a complaint center.

AT&T Wireless would be wise to eliminate roaming on its national plans. The online bulletin boards also reveal an enormous amount of confusion as to what constitutes roaming, where and when. The AT&T Wireless national plans permit calling "on the AT&T network," but this is waived in certain metro areas with roaming agreements. This sets up confusion for the customer and increases the likelihood of expensive calls into customer service to bicker about roaming charges. Cingular has eliminated roaming on its national plan, but for some reason AT&T hasn't figured out that it's better to do the same.

Going into the deal, Cingular had to know it was buying a company in steep decline and presumably negotiated sufficient protections for its $41 billion bid. Right? We'll see.