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.”

House Communications Subcommittee leaders want to engage industry on net neutrality and adopt a consensus proposal as law, even as the FCC moves to make rules on its own. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., wants to legislate based on industry consensus, he said at a subcommittee broadband adoption hearing and a conference of the Computer & Communications Industry Association. At the hearing, Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said he’s “100 percent behind” Boucher in the belief that Congress should get involved. But some other legislators questioned the speediness of doing net neutrality on Capitol Hill.

LOS ANGELES -- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday he’s open to self-regulation on net neutrality -- with a commission “backstop” -- and to work with industry to ensure forbearance in the broadband reclassification he proposes can’t be undone. Wholesale unbundling and rate regulation in the six sections of Title II Genachowski seeks to impose on broadband transport are “off the table,” he said in a Q-and-A with NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow at the cable show. “We're going to rely on competitive markets,” Genachowski said.

The FCC approved petitions by 21 cities, counties and states seeking waivers to move forward with statewide and regional interoperable wireless broadband networks using 700 MHz spectrum already assigned to public safety. Chairman Julius Genachowski had sought a quick vote on the order so public safety agencies have a chance for NTIA broadband stimulus grants, sources said. The order is noteworthy marks the first time that the FCC has imposed a technology standard, requiring that the systems use LTE. The order wasn’t a surprise: Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett indicated in February that action on the waivers was coming.