NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — The global credit crisis hasn't curbed the appetite for takeovers among some of the world's largest telephone companies.

France Telecom SA made an unsolicited 252.5 billion kronor ($41.9 billion) bid for Sweden's TeliaSonera AB yesterday, while Verizon Wireless, a unit of Vodafone Group Plc and Verizon Communications Inc., agreed to buy Alltel Corp. for $28.1 billion in cash and debt to become the biggest US mobile-phone company.

"The telecoms sector is less affected by the general economic malaise that's affecting other industries," said Scott Moeller, a professor of mergers and acquisitions at Cass Business School in London and a former banker at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG. "Many of the purchasers are fully or partially state-owned and therefore have deep pockets to fund the deal."

Including the France Telecom and Verizon Wireless offers, telecommunications deals amount to about $172.3 billion this year, up 32 percent from $130.6 billion in the same period a year ago. Global mergers and acquisitions dropped to $1.29 trillion from $2 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market slowed economic growth and curbed corporate purchases. BHP Billiton Ltd.'s $147.4 billion bid for Rio Tinto Group is the largest transaction this year, Bloomberg data show. A France Telecom purchase of TeliaSonera would be second.

TeliaSonera rejected France Telecom's cash and stock approach yesterday because it's "far below" the company's value, chairman Tom von Weymarn said in an interview. Sweden's government, the largest owner, also turned down the bid.

France Telecom chief executive officer Didier Lombard has said the company has to bulk up to face competition for services from the likes of Google Inc., Nokia Oyj and Microsoft Corp. He said today he doesn't "consider the situation to be blocked".

Verizon Wireless agreed to buy Alltel for about $5.9 billion in cash and $22.2 billion in debt, the Basking Ridge, New Jersey- based company said today. The deal is worth 2.1 percent more than the $27.5 billion TPG Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid last year to take Alltel private and pushes Verizon past AT&T Inc. as the US's biggest mobile-phone company.

Former telephone monopolies have been looking outside their home markets for acquisitions in the past year. Spain's Telefonica SA in October bought a controlling stake in Telecom Italia SpA along with partners including Mediobanca SpA and Assicurazioni Generali SpA. Newbury, England-based Vodafone purchased a stake in India wireless operator Hutchison Essar Ltd. last year.