Shareholders of Nextel Communications and Sprint on Wednesday approved Sprint's plan to buy Nextel for about $36.9 billion (€30.5 billion), creating a company with about a quarter of US mobile phone customers.

The deal, which is part of a recent spate of consolidation in the US wireless market, will strengthen Sprint's position as the third-largest US wireless provider, giving it more than 40 million subscribers.

The companies, which expect to close the deal later this quarter, said they planned to list Sprint Nextel on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "S".

Several US mobile network operators have agreed to combine since early last year in efforts to expand their networks and increase their marketing clout in the highly competitive US market, which will still have four national operators after the latest round of consolidation.

Sprint's December agreement to buy Nextel came weeks after the purchase by Cingular Wireless of AT&T Wireless. The biggest rural operator, Alltel, plans to buy Western Wireless.

Sprint shares were up 16 cents at $25.48 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange and Nextel stock rose 20 cents to $33 on Nasdaq.