RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's business news starts with a mobile phone merger on the table.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Verizon is in advance talks to buy the phone company Alltel, which serves rural areas. The price they're talking is about $27 billion. Verizon is the second largest mobile phone company in the U.S.. But if it buys Alltel, Verizon would vault over AT&T to become number one with more than 80 million customers.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: These merger talks are happening as mobile phone executives face an increasingly saturated market, a market where most people already own cell phones. One of the only ways they can keep their companies growing is to buy other companies.
Verizon is in advanced talks to buy the phone company Alltel, which serves rural areas. If the merger goes through, Verizon would vault over AT&T to become the nation's largest mobile phone company.