Verizon - Alltel merger to become official on January 9th

Verizon Wireless recently announced that its acquisition of Alltel Wireless would close on January 9th, according to Business Week. The deal cost Verizon a total of US$28.1 billion dollars and will make it, once again, the largest U.S. carrier in terms of subscribers, with a total of 78 million customers.

Verizon had expected the deal to close before the end of 2008, but the approval process from federal regulators dragged on a bit longer than the company had expected, completing only in December. [via PhoneScoop]