Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL in merger talks?

Haven't been able to confirm this yet, so take it as a rumor for now, but we just got a tip that Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL have been in merger talks for the past few weeks (and by merger we pretty much mean acquisition, since it'd most likely be Verizon swallowing up ALLTEL). Could definitely see this happening: Verizon is eager to pull ahead of Cingular, which nabbed the number one spot after merging with AT&T Wireless last

year, and snapping up ALLTEL would attract less scrutiny from the Feds than trying to merge with Sprint. Also, both companies use CDMA, which would make it easier to unify their networks, and ALLTEL even recently rolled out high-speed EV-DO wireless service in three cities (including two that aren't currently covered by Verizon's EV-DO network).