[gorner]

You may be working with outdated information. The separate publicly-traded "AT&T Wireless" company disappeared in 2004, and its successor has been wholly-owned by AT&T Inc. since late 2006.

Meanwhile, Verizon Communications has always been the majority shareholder in Verizon Wireless, and sole owner since February.

Whatever separation there may still be between these operations in the corporate structure (e.g. AT&T Inc. vs its subsidiary AT&T Mobility LLC) is only that - corporate structure. It does not ultimately change what each parent company owns / does.