The carriers have long contemplated options for Verizon Wireless, and Verizon has for years acknowledged that it would happily buy out its minority partner. A sale would be monumental. Verizon Wireless as a whole could be worth $250 billion, putting a massive price tag on Vodafone's 45% stake.

Conveniently enough, the telecom's chief financial officer addressed the matter Monday, March 4, at an investor conference, just a day before the story by Bloomberg News.

"This is one I am getting tired of talking about," Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said in response to a question at a Deutsche Bank AG conference. "So I guess the news is there is nothing else to talk about."

Shammo reiterated that Verizon would "love to own" the minority stake and that the telecom's "appetite" has not changed in the past dozen years. "I think what happens here is the press makes a bigger deal out of this than we do between the two partners and, quite honestly, there is really nothing else to report," he said.

Verizon declined to comment Wednesday.

A potential deal is too big to ignore. And there are reasons that it could finally happen.

Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. analyst Kevin Smithen noted in a Tuesday report that 2013 could be an auspicious year for a deal. Favorable debt markets, the improved value of Verizon shares, the relative strength of the dollar and Vodafone's interest in European cable systems could facilitate a transaction, he said.

Smithen values Verizon Wireless at $250 billion, based on a multiple of 7.4 times its 2013 Ebitda. Vodafone's stake could cost Verizon $107 billion, he wrote. Verizon would likely take out $35 billion in debt to fund the deal.

Over the years, observers have characterized the parents' options as marriage, dividend or divorce.

A marriage of Verizon and Vodafone would be an unwieldy undertaking. A divorce nearly happened in 2004, when the former AT&T Wireless went up for sale. Vodafone bid aggressively for the wireless network, but lost to Cingular. Had it won, the U.K. carrier would have exited Verizon Wireless.

Even dividend payments have been contentious, though in the past few years the JV has paid its parent companies billions in dividends.

For a period, Verizon tweaked Vodafone by choosing to invest in Verizon Wireless' network or reduce debt rather than pay a dividend. Over the past decade or so, Vodafone often faced shareholder pressure to generate cash from the valuable asset.

Verizon Wireless' cash flow has become increasingly important to Verizon's own dividend. The wireless JV has made dividend payments more recently, which relieves some of the pressure on Vodafone.

Through all of this, Verizon Wireless is about as successful as a partnership can be. The situation illustrates that even when joint ventures work well, they can give their parents headaches.

Shammo and other executives at the parent companies may rightly be tired of the Verizon Wireless question. But until there is a different answer -- like a deal announcement, for instance -- the questions will likely continue.