Following news that Alltel's shareholders have greenlit its acquisition by private equity firms, Wall Street is speculating that another regional carrier is set to be acquired, this time U.S. Cellular. An acquisition of the the rural would follow the recent buyouts of Ramcell, Rural Cellular, Dobson and Alltel. Sprint Nextel has also long been rumored to be an acquisition target since it merged with Nextel in 2005. Analysts have not pointed to any specific buyers of U.S. Cellular, but Sprint has been floated as a possibility since such an acquisition would make it closer in size to its two biggest competitors. U.S. Cellular claims to have about 6 million subscribers.

For more on U.S. Cellular's rumored sale:
- read this article from Forbes