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Verizon Wireless will officially close its $28.1 billion acquisition of Alltel on Jan. 9, according to Verizon Communications.

Verizon Wireless, which is jointly owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone, passed all regulatory hurdles on the deal in December. The Federal Trade Commission gave the final approval last month and Verizon also has secured $17 billion in loans to complete the transaction.

With the Alltel acquisition, Verizon Wireless will have nearly 80 million subscribers, surpassing AT&T Mobility as the top carrier in the United States. Verizon has said it will put a call center in Little Rock, Ark., where Alltel is based, but that it expects many Alltel jobs to be lost after the deal closes.

Last month The Nielsen Company released a year-end look at the most popular trends among Americans during 2008. Included in the release are consumer spending trends across Television, Internet, Movies, DVDs, Music, Mobile, Books and Video Games.

The Top Tens show year-to-date results for each media and consumer related category measured by The Nielsen Company. You can access the complete report here but for the sake of this blog, I was interested in the following:

1. Top 10 Websites Accessed Over Mobile Phones (U.S.) – October 2008

1. Yahoo! Mail
2. Google Search
3. Gmail
4. Weather Channel
5. ESPN
6. MSN Hotmail
7. Google Maps
8. AOL Email
9. CNN News
10. Facebook

2. Top 10 Mobile Phones in Use (U.S.) – Q3 2008

1. Motorola RAZR V3 series (V3, V3c, V3m, V3i, V3i DG, V3) 9.3%
2. Motorola MotoKRZR series (K1m, K1) 2.0%
3. LG VX8300 series 1.6%
4. Apple iPhone 1.5%
5. LG VX8500 series (Chocolate, VX8500, VX8550) 1.2%
5. RIM BlackBerry 8100 series (Pearl,8110, 8120, 8129) 1.2%
7. Nokia 6101 series (6101, 6102, 6102i) 1.1%
8. LG VX8350 1.0%
9. Motorola V325 series (V325, V323, V325i, V323i) 0.9%
9. Nokia 6010 series 0.9%


3. Top 10 Mobile Games by Revenue Share (U.S.) - Q3 2008

Game Title with Share of Overall Revenue:

1. Tetris 7.0%
2. Bejeweled 4.0%
3. Guitar Hero III 3.6%
4. Wheel of Fortune 2.6%
5. PAC-MAN 2.5%
5. The Oregon Trail 1.9%
7. Ms. PAC-MAN 1.7%
8. Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? 1.6%
9. Tetris Mania 1.6%
9. Surviving High School 1.2%

Data is based on carrier-billed revenue at the top four U.S. carriers.

It's 2009 and if you live in California, don't text while driving.

A new law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, bans writing, sending, or reading a text-based communication while driving in California, according to the DMV's site.

The law applies to wireless phones, or other communication devices, used for text-based communication. The ban includes, and is not limited to: text messages, instant messages, or e-mail, according to the vehicle department.

"Texters" who need a fix should pull off the road to a safe location before engaging in the popular form of communication, because the violating the law carries a $20 fine for a first offense and $50 for each time after that. Repeat offenders could face triple the fine amount, because of penalty assessments, the DMV said.

The state already requires adult drivers to use handsfree devices for cell phones, and bares 16- and 17-year-olds from using any device to talk or text while driving.