Sprint continues to roll out the red carpet for any company looking to merge with, or acquire, the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier. Sprint has already begun informal talks about a possible merger with T-Mobile, company executives making it abundantly clear a Sprint T-Mobile merger is their preferred outcome. While the company's first attempt to acquire the company was blocked by regulators in 2014 because it would hamper competition, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure claimed a T-Mobile Sprint union would create a "turbocharged maverick" in the industry.

Consumers and consumer advocacy groups aren't quite as bullish on a deal. Many worry that such a deal would not only eliminate a competitor, it would technically eliminate a competitor that's just really begun disrupting the market, replacing it with a new, larger company guided by what's not always seen as the most competent executive leadership at Sprint.

Claure made it clear the company also sees the possibility for "enormous synergies" via an acquisition by a cable company if the T-Mobile thing doesn't work out.

"I think a lot of people don’t understand, but when you look at your business combined with one, or two, or three cable companies -- as they seem to get together to do things -- the synergies are enormous," stated Claure. "There’s traditional operating synergies, but there’s also network synergies that are quite relevant when you’re going to build a 5G network in terms of infrastructure that cable companies have."

While consumers wait for "enormous synergies" of looming sector mergers, they should also be wary of rate hikes, if the CEO's comments are any indication.

"In order for this industry to be healthy, I think eventually all carriers will have to basically increase prices in the next few years as their consumption increases," said Claure.

Verizon says it will use the combined power of its Yahoo and AOL acquisitions to help launch a live streaming TV service sometime this summer. Speaking at an industry conference this week, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam stated that the service would be different from Verizon's Go90 streaming video service, which is aimed at Millennials and hasn't been doing so hot.

Last week we noted how FCC guards shoved a reporter into a wall, followed him to the bathroom, and then forced him to leave the building...simply for asking a question during last week's FCC vote to begin killing net neutrality. The FCC's behavior was quickly criticized by reporters and the National Press Club, which called the event "completely unacceptable." FCC Chairman Mike O'Rielly apologized for the guards' behavior, but claimed not to have seen the incident because he was "freezing and starving" (gutting consumer protections is apparently strenuous work).

• FCC Title I Vote Puts Net Neutrality Hot Potato in Congress' Lap [eweek.com]

• Amazon's a la Carte TV Helps Starz, HBO Stand Out in Netflix Era [bloomberg.com]

• Team creates high-speed internet lane for emergency situations [phys.org]

• Real-world 5G test is 120 times faster than home broadband - in a moving car [bgr.com]

• TPG Capital will pay $2.4 billion to acquire Kirkland, Wash.-based Wave Broadband, which it will merge with RCN to form the country's sixth-largest cableco [axios.com]

• WISP Redzone says it has developed fixed wireless spectrum aggregation technology that can support broadband speeds of up to 400 Mbps per customer, Eyes national expansion [telecompetitor.com]

• Cost of wireless service falls 13%, biggest decline in 16 years: Labor Dept. [fiercewireless.com]

• Sprint’s CEO holds the door open to T-Mobile, and to cable companies [fiercewireless.com]

• Dish integrates with Amazon Alexa for hands-free TV, the first TV provider to do so [techcrunch.com]

Last March, the GOP used the Congressional Review Act to kill FCC broadband privacy protections that would have given consumers significantly more control over their own data. As we noted at the time, States from Wisconsin to Washington rushed in to pass their own rules protecting consumer broadband privacy, creating a patchy framework where some consumers are protected, and some aren't.

Just under 220 million people -- or about 3% of the world's population -- has access to a gigabit broadband connection. That's according to the latest Gigabit Monitor report from test and measurement vendor Viavi.

Right before the FCC voted last week to try and begin gutting net neutrality, the cable industry's top lobbying organization, the NCTA, took out a full-page ad in the Washington Post proclaiming that while the cable industry may have spent millions to kill the popular consumer protections, America's cable providers still really adore the idea of an open internet. Given the cable industry's ongoing attempts to gut all meaningful oversight of its growing monopoly, the general response from the public has been -- laughter.

"We’ve always been committed to an open internet that gives you the freedom to be in charge of your online experience.

After numerous delays, Comcast appears to have quietly "soft launched" its 4K-capable DVR in a handful of markets. Mari Silbey at Light Reading noticed that the XG4 DVR -- also know as the XG1v4 -- has shown up on a Comcast X1 support page and is now available in a limited number of Comcast markets.

Cable providers continue to absolutely dominate telcos when it comes to adding new broadband subscribers. According to the latest data from the Leichtman Research Group, the broadband industry saw a net gain of 960,000 broadband subscribers last quarter.