ViaSat’s newly acquired WildBlue satellite-based Internet service will add 20,000-25,000 net new subscribers this year as the new owner fine-tunes it in advance of a 2011 satellite launch, company officials told analysts in a conference call. WildBlue, which had about 424,000 subscribers in mostly rural markets as of March 31, was purchased by ViaSat earlier this year for $568 million. ViaSat kept WildBlue’s Greenwood Village, Colo., headquarters as well as many of its 240 employees. It plans to phase in changes to the service gradually this year as it prepares for the ViaSat-1 satellite launch in late Q1 2011, company officials said. The Loral-built Ka-band satellite is expected to go into operation in Q2 2011, they said.

A grant to Dish Network of a rare full-court review of a ruling of a DVR patent infringement ruling it lost to TiVo hinges on whether a redesigned satellite receiver/DVR should be subject to new infringement proceedings, analysts said. In granting an en banc review, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit ordered that four additional briefs be filed by September. That set the stage for oral argument this fall, analysts said.

Negotiating 3D distribution rights for live TV events such as sports has become a complicated task as content owners, licensees, traditional distributors and new distributors seeking them all are at the table, industry executives said in interviews. “In terms of rights?” said Terry Denson, vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon. “It’s cloudy. It’s real cloudy."

West Virginia’s Public Service Commission conditionally approved Verizon’s proposed sale of landlines and long-distance accounts in that state to Frontier Communications. The announcement late Thursday marked the final assent needed at the state level for the transaction and came after a harsh campaign against approval by telecom unions. The only regulatory hurdle remaining is the FCC, which a Frontier official said might come within a week.

The FCC heard a litany of complaints from advocates for people with disabilities Thursday, on the opening panel of the FCC’s Wireless Technology/Disability Access Workshop. They asked the commission to step in and make cellphones more accessible for their members. Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and Karen Strauss, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, assured speakers that the FCC takes their concerns seriously.

The Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecom Group sharply criticized Verizon Wireless’s disclosure that it’s in talks about partnerships with rural carriers to accelerate LTE deployment in remote places. The association’s president, Steve Berry, said the announcement doesn’t deal with a crucial matter: Data-roaming agreements with smaller carriers around the country.

LOS ANGELES - State PUC Commissioners debated the implications of the National Broadband Plan at NCTA’s annual show and urged the federal government not to pull rank on states.

Slow broadband speeds and insufficient access stifles small business, business owners and executives told the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee during a round table discussion Thursday. “Broadband Internet service is the ability to open doors for small businesses that have been historically shut,” said Committee Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La. “Broadband can help some small businesses function like big businesses and increase their geographic presence by moving their operations online."

The FCC should recognize aircraft mounted earth stations (AMES) as a primary application of the fixed satellite service Ku-band spectrum before it allows vehicle mounted earth stations (VMES) networks to begin operations, Boeing told the commission in a filing.

Expanding Lifeline and Link-Up programs to spur broadband adoption by those who can’t afford it should be part of comprehensive Universal Service Fund revamp legislation, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. At a hearing on the FCC’s adoption recommendations made in the National Broadband Plan, Boucher said he wants to work with Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., to integrate her adoption-focused USF bill with his own comprehensive USF bill. Boucher urged the FCC to accelerate its process to finalize details on an intended pilot program, saying the time frame for introducing his bill with Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., is “fairly near term.”