AIRTOUCH Communications will take over another US mobile phone group, Cellular Communications, in a stock and cash transaction worth $1.65 billion, the two firms announced on Saturday.

AirTouch will acquire the approximately 60 per cent of the shares of Cellular Communications it does not already own subject to regulatory and stockholder approval, a joint statement said.

The agreement brings to a close a process that started with the 1990 agreement between AirTouch and CCI where each company contributed its cellular properties in Ohio and Michigan to a joint venture.

AirTouch Communications operates cellular, paging, personal communications services and the Globalstar satellite system in the United States and 11 other countries nations: Belgium, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Thailand.

CCI's primary business interest is its 50 per cent ownership position in the joint venture, which has more than one million subscribers.