Reuters - Verizon Wireless is close to sealing a roughly $27 billion deal to buy rural mobile service provider Alltel Corp, aiming to overtake AT&T Inc as the top U.S. wireless service, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters on Wednesday.

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.