NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - VoiceStream has proposed a deal with Cingular that would create a company rivaling No. 1 wireless phone provider Verizon Wireless, according to a published report Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people close to the discussions, said the talks still are in early stages and that the two sides are far from agreement on a price. But it said analysts value VoiceStream at between $10 billion and $15 billion. The paper said officials of the companies involved declined to comment on the reports. Cingular declined to comment when contacted by CNNfn.

VoiceStream, the nation's No. 6 wireless provider, is a unit of Deutsche Telekom, which is struggling with a debt load that led to the resignation of CEO Ron Sommer, who engineered the purchase of VoiceStream. It held discussions with No. 3 provider AT&T Wireless (AWE: Research, Estimates) earlier this summer, but those talks did not produce a deal.

Cingular, a joint venture of regional phone providers SBC Communications Inc. (SBC: Research, Estimates) and BellSouth Corp. (BLS: Research, Estimates), is the No. 2 provider with nearly 22.2 million customers. Combining it with VoiceStream's 8 million customers would bring it near Verizon Wireless' 30.3 million.

The Journal said the discussions are an indication of consolidation pressures in the troubled telecom industry and a sign that regulators are open to deals as a way of halting further financial problems in the sector.

The paper said a deal would be complicated and would leave Cingular as the controlling shareholder of the combined company.