AP - Verizon Wireless is in talks to buy Alltel Communications LLC, the country's fifth-largest wireless carrier by subscribers, for $27 billion, according to news reports.

Reuters - Britain's Vodafone confirmed on Thursday that Verizon Wireless, in which it has a 45 percent stake, is in advanced talks about buying U.S. rural mobile service provider Alltel Corp.

AFP - Japan's third-largest cellphone operator Softbank Mobile said Wednesday it had clinched a deal to bring Apple's iPhone to Japan.

AP - Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.