At the moment as I type this, in the 5-pm hour Eastern, Friday 21-May-2010, there isn't anything yet at the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) website, but a Google News search on "VeriZon Frontier Sale" will result in well over a hundred results of radio/TV/newspaper/etc. websites which now put up news items regarding the FCC's approval of this VeriZon/Frontier transfer.
This would be mostly legacy GTE-including-Contel in several (but not all of the) states where VeriZon has continued to so far retain such old GTE-including-Contel, as well as legacy BOC Chesapeake-and-Potomac Tel (of RBOC Bell Atlantic) including the Crows-Hematite VA ratecenter (which gets its dialtone from C&P-WV' White Sulphur Springs VA remote switch).
On Monday 17-May-2010, the Virginia SCC (State Corporations Commission) gave its final approval for Frontier to take over the Crows-Hematite VA ratecenter from VeriZon (BA/C&P).
The actual URL for the document is way too long to post, but the general reference page at the VA-SCC website regarding the transfer from VeriZon to Frontier regarding Crows-Hematite VA is:
And the nine states (of the 14 total in this VeriZon sale to Frontier) which were required to approve of this sale, had all approved, the West Virginia PSC approving it last Thursday (13-May-2010).
Five states (of the 14 total) do not have it written in their legislative statutes or regulatory procedures, for their state regulatory agencies to approve of such a sale/transfer of telco ownership --
North Carolina Utilities Commission Michigan Public Service Commission Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Idaho Public Utilities Commission
All that was required for these five states was for the FCC and other federal regulatory agencies to approve of the sale, as well as any necessary approval by shareholders of VeriZon and Frontier.
The nine states where approval was required and the date of approval are:
Wednesday 28-October-2009: Public Utilities Commission of Nevada Wednesday 28-October-2009: Public Service Commission of South Carolina Thursday 29-October-2009: California Public Utilities Commission Thursday 11-February-2010: Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Thursday 18-February-2010: Arizona Corporation Commission Friday 26-February-2010: Oregon Public Utilities Commission Friday 16-April-2010: Washington (state) Utilities & Transportation Commission Wednesday 21-April-2010: Illinois Commerce Commission Thursday 13-May-2010: West Virginia Public Service Commission
VeriZon and Frontier jointly announced their decision to have this sale of telco areas, just over a year ago, on Wednesday 13-May-2009, pending regulatory/etc. approval. Over the next several weeks/months during the late-Spring and throughout the Summer of 2009, they also jointly filed the necessary requests to the required regulatory agencies.
On Tuesday 01-September-2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) granted approval (involving the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of
1976, regarding certain conditions of the IRS)On Tuesday 27-October-2009, Frontier's shareholders approved (approval by VeriZon shareholders was apparently NOT required, probably since it didn't involve a purchase, but rather a sale?).
The sale of legacy GTE (and Contel) in California involves only about a dozen or so exchange areas near the CA state border with Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, all three states' old GTE and Contel being sold by VeriZon to Frontier as part of this sale -- old GTE "West Coast Telephone Company" on the Pacific coast at the Oregon state line, a couple of old Contel exchanges near Lake Tahoe bordering Nevada, and a handful of old Contel exchanges in San Bernardino/Riverside/imperial counties which border Arizona. The vast bulk of (retained so far) GTE and Contel within the bulk of California are still to be retained by VeriZon. (GTE did sell off some old GTE and/or Contel in California to Citizens Tel, which is now Frontier, back in 1995, however).
Also being retained by VeriZon is old GTE and Contel so far retained in Texas (some old GTE and Contel was sold to the new Valor Telecom back in 2000, Valor merged with Alltel's spun-off landline in 2006 to become Windstream).
And the GTE in the Tampa FL metro area is also being retained by VeriZon. (Old Contel in the Florida panhandle and northeast Florida was sold to Centel way back in 1985, Centel becoming part of Sprint/United in the early 1990s, legacy Centel & United spun-off to Embarq in 2006, and bought by CenturyTel in 2008/09 to become CenturyLink; one Contel exchange near the FL/GA state-line was sold to Alltel probably in the mid-1980s, and that exchange was fully consolidated into a nearby Alltel ratecenter; another Contel exchange in northwest Florida was sold back in the early 1970s to Southland Tel (AL) which was bought by Rochester (NY) Tel circa 1991, Rochester Tel renamed itself Frontier in the mid-1990s and was merged with Citizens circa 2000).
Also being retained by VeriZon is GTE (and Contel) in Pennsylvania and Virginia. VeriZon is PA is also legacy BOC Bell Atlantic's Bell of Pennsylvania; VeriZon in VA is also legacy BOC BA/C&P-Va.
While North Carolina (GTE and Contel) is being sold to Frontier, the Knotts Island NC ratecenter (once-GTE, once-Contel) is being retained by VeriZon. Knotts Island NC is part of the Norfolk VA LATA, and has much more of a community of interest with Virginia than with North Carolina. It is its own (remote) switch -- i.e., it doesn't actually get "dialtone" from a VA-based c.o.switch, although it is part of the Norfolk VA LATA, and its "host" switch is in Virginia.
There are a handful of central offices/ratecenters in the Haggerstown MD LATA, along the West Virginia/Maryland state-line, where VA customers/ ratecenters get dialtone from MD-side c.o.switches, and vice-versa where MD customers/ratecenters get dialtone from VA-side c.o.switches. VeriZon does have plans to re-wire these customers so that they will get dialtone from their own states' side c.o.switches, so that there can be a "clean break" of the presently VZ/BA/C&P-WV side ratecenters (soon to be Frontier), from the presently-and-still-retained VZ/BA/C&P-MD side ratecenters. Local/EAS will be retained where it already exists, only that it will become inter-LEC (between VZ and Frontier) inter-state (between MD and VA), instead of intra-VeriZon inter-state.
Previous postings of mine on this subject give more details, including links to various VeriZon and Frontier regulatory and network/technical documents at their respective websites.
It is expected that the network/technical/etc. and legal/regulatory/ business/financial/etc. issues (especially with NeuStar-NANPA, NECA, Telcordia-TRA, etc) will be fully completed for an "official transfer" from VeriZon to Frontier to be "officially effective" on Wednesday
30-June-2010 / Thursday 01-July-2010.Mark J. Cuccia markjcuccia at yahoo dot com Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina