EDGE is not owned by Cingular or ATT. It is used by many carriers, mostly in north and south America, but also in parts of Asia. It is generally referred to as 2.5G. 3G is UMTS. I took a look at orange.fr and they have a map which lists the 3G and EDGE coverage areas, so maybe Orange France does have EDGE. I haven't tried it though, nor do I know anyone who has.

GPRS is available in most every part of the GSM world.