The Federal Communications Commission has approved Verizon Wireless' proposed acquisition of Alltel Corp. because the deal can benefit consumers.

The FCC commissioners met in Washington yesterday to vote on whether the proposed deal would be detrimental to wireless competition.

"I am pleased that this transaction can benefit customers in rural America by bringing wireless technology to their areas," said Robert McDowell, commissioner of the FCC, Washington.

The $28 billion acquisition of Alltel will make Verizon Wireless the nation's largest wireless carrier.

The vote was unanimous and will let Verizon Wireless go ahead with the buyout.

However, there are some conditions to the deal.

Verizon Wireless must honor Alltel's existing roaming agreements for the next four years.

The Justice Department okayed the deal as well, but only after Verizon said it would sell assets in 22 states.

"Extending customers' roaming obligations is a great benefit to customers," said Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the FCC, Washington.

The commission's approval was the last action required before the completion of the transaction could occur.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group.

The FCC meeting was postponed for about four-and-a-half hours because the commissioners were trying to come to an agreement on the amount of years that Verizon would have to honor the roaming obligations.

Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein wanted the roaming guarantees to go on for seven years.

In other parts of the agenda, the FCC also approved Sprint's partnership with Clearwire.

The wireless carrier first announced that it would renew its efforts to partner with Clearwire to bring together both companies' WiMAX holdings to build a nationwide broadband wireless network.

The proposed network is valued at about $14.5 billion and is financially backed by Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks.

AT&T filed a petition to the FCC claiming that Sprint and Clearwire would compete with other national wireless providers and are not making the required showings necessary.

The FCC meeting approved the merger anyway.

"The Sprint/Clearwire transaction is unlikely to make competitive problems," Mr. Copps said. "The transaction will be beneficial to consumers as it will increase competition and consumer choice."