Wireless firms seek worldwide empires.

Wireless phone companies are playing a high-stakes acquisition game, desperately seeking to grab global markets before their competitors do. Competition in the wireless world has sparked some of the biggest corporate mergers in history, with MCI WorldCom_s $129 billion deal for Sprint exceeded only by Vodafone AirTouch_s hostile $137 billion bid Friday for German wireless firm Mannesmann. Companies are looking to control a wireless market that analysts expect will include 1 billion cell phone users by 2003. That growth explosion comes as people around the world increasingly use mobile phones as their primary means of local and long-distance communications. A new generation of Internet technology promises new revenue streams for wireless players, and is also behind much of the industry consolidation. Wireless Net access over cell phones is almost ready for the mass market, and wireless connections may soon be a viable alternative to a cable or high-speed dial-up modem.