According to a Friday statement by Dallas-based AT&T, its $2.35 billion acquisition of Verizon-divested Alltel wireless assets is likely to come through early next year.

The deal for the AT&T acquisition of 1.5 million Alltel subscribers in 18 states was announced in May this year, when Verizon - a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC - had to divest the licenses and subscribers in order to get its Alltel buyout approved by federal regulators.

The subscribers, mostly in the rural areas, comprise the assets from Verizon Wireless as well as the former Rural Cellular Corp.

AT&T and Verizon had mutually agreed that AT&T would acquire the divested assets, swapping them for its sale of former Centennial Communications Corp. assets to Verizon, which would take over almost 120,000 subscribers in Louisiana and Mississippi.

In a separate statement pertaining to the swap of assets, AT&T said that it would complete that transaction also in the 2010 first quarter.

While the AT&T acquisition of Verizon-divested assets is being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the US Department of Justice; the swap of assets between AT&T and Verizon also requires regulatory approval.