Battle For Enterprise Drives Mobile-Phone Deals: Page 2 of 2

AT&T Wireless began offering its EDGE nationwide high-speed data service in November before Verizon Wireless offered its EV-DO service nationally. Verizon Wireless had been offering the EV-DO service in two cities before that, and is now rolling out the service nationwide, setting the stage for a showdown between the two technologies.

"They're dueling," said Doherty, "They've been leapfrogging each other."

Somewhere in the mix with AT&T Wireless is Japan's NTT DoCoMo, which has a 20 percent equity stake in the American wireless firm. AT&T Wireless unveiled its mMode service last year, which is similar to DoCoMo's popular iMode service that has been embraced by millions of Japanese consumers. It remains to be seen whether DoCoMo will become a more active partner with the U. S. company.

The Wall Street Journal noted Thursday that DoCoMo and Nextel Communications have also discussed making a deal with AT&T Wireless. And Verizon Wireless and Sprint utilize similar CDMA network standards, making them logical partners.