More cellphone merger mania: Alltel buys Western Wireless

There was some speculation a few weeks back that Verizon was going to snap them up, but Alltel, a regional wireless carrier you probably haven't heard of unless you live in one of the states where they operate, decided they'd rather be an acquirer rather than an acquiree and shelled out a cool $6 billion for Western Wireless, another regional carrier there's a good chance you've never heard of. The deal, assuming it gets regulatory approval, would make Alltel the fifth largest carrier, with 10 million subscribers in 33 states, and not all that far behind T-Mobile, either, which clocks in at number 4 with around 17 million subscribers or so.