As we've seen with both Sprint and T-Mobile, LTE launch locations pop up well ahead of official launch markets as the companies run pre-commercial launch tests. Users now say that they're seeing T-Mobile LTE signals pop up in Detroit, Minneapolis and New York City. Minneapolis is slated for a May launch, while both Detroit and New York City aren't officially expected to come online until June. T-Mobile previously stated they aim to cover 100 million potential customers with LTE by the middle of 2013, with 200 million potential customers covered by the end of this year.

Verizon's attempt to hang up on their copper networks in Sandy-impacted areas has gotten more complicated after the NY Public Service Commission last week indicated hesitation at letting Verizon disconnect users state wide without first understanding the repercussions. According to regional Long Island news reports, the PSC has granted Verizon temporary approval to pull DSL on Fire Island, NY, replacing it with Verizon's Voice Link wireless service.

After taking heat from consumer groups last year for blocking Facetime video chat, AT&T made waves last week by deciding to block the new cross-platform and device video chat functionality in Google Hangouts from running over their speedy new LTE network. As they did during the Facetime debacle, AT&T made the obscure claim that they can block any application that comes pre-loaded on a device, even if technically Hangouts doesn't come pre-loaded (AT&T's just choosing language carefully to dodge wiggle through net neutrality rule loopholes).

A new joint study by Aalborg University, Northeastern University, and the Copenhagen Business School has found that piracy of video games on BitTorrent networks has been unsurprisingly over-stated by industry. The study analyzed a the BitTorrent trading of some 173 different computer games across 14 different gaming platforms over a three-month period between 2010 and 2011. "First and foremost, P2P game piracy is extraordinarily prevalent and geographically distributed [at least it was during the period analyzed]," said the researchers. "However, the numbers in our investigation suggest that previously reported magnitudes in game piracy are too high." The full study is available here (pdf).

Hulu has consistently flailed and suffered from incomplete show catalogs because the company's owners, with a vested interest in the status quo, really don't have much of an interest in Hulu truly disrupting or succeeding. Now Disney and News Corporation, after years of bickering about what to do with the property, are again pushing for a sale on the heels of departures of top company executives last January.

Bloomberg reports that freshly-nominated FCC boss Tom Wheeler has dumped around $500,000 to $1 million in AT&T and Verizon stock ahead of his assignment at the FCC. The stock was dumped, according to the report, "to resolve possible conflicts of interest before taking office." Wheeler also dumped significantly smaller stock holdings in 78 other companies including Google, Apple and Comcast (the full disclosure form is here). Dumping the stock doesn't do much to quell concerns that Wheeler's thirty years of lobbying for both the wireless and cable industries will do far more to frame his in-office policies than a universe of stock holdings ever could.

While there has been some twitching from the corpse of LightSquared in DC, it has been fairly clear to everyone that the company has been dead for quite some time. Now insiders tell Bloomberg that Charlie Ergen made a $2 billion "stalking horse" bid to acquire LightSquared's assets and spectrum. One problem with such a deal -- the FCC still hasn't given their approval for use of the interference-prone spectrum, the core reason that LightSquared died in the first place. LightSquared has until May 31 to accept the bid. Dish has slowly been engaged in a series of spectrum acquisition deals to aid the company's potential launch of their own LTE network.

• Netflix's Traffic Problem Is Good for Big Cable [fool.com]
• Dish Said to Bid $2 Billion for LightSquared Wireless Spectrum [wallstreetpit.com]
• Outgoing FCC chairman Julius Genachowski looks back on his four years at the agency [newsfactor.com]
• Battle for the hearts, minds, time and wallets of broadband users shifts to the home [lightreading.com]
• Energy Efficiency Could Cut Wireless Data Power Demand 90% By 2020 [cleantechnica.com]
• AT&T says 'any' mobile video chat app will work on its network by the end of 2013 [theverge.com]
• Swedish Prosecutor Claims Registrar Of .se Domains An 'Accomplice' In Infringement Because Of Pirate Bay Domain [techdirt.com]
• Global smartphone shipments to outstrip feature phones in 2013 [fiercewireless.com]
• Google's free Wi-Fi network bogging down due to traffic [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• The iWatch is coming! The iWatch is coming! Reports: Apple's wrister to have 1.5-inch OLED, test units being built [theregister.co.uk]
• Roku CEO: Virtual cable MSOs 'inevitable' [fiercecable.com]

Sprint raised its acquisition offer for Clearwire today, offering $3.40 per share for the 50% of Clearwire Sprint currently doesn't own. The new offer, which temporarily delayed a Clearwire shareholder offer on the deal, values Clearwire's total value at around $10.7 billion. The higher bid comes as Dish has been trying to acquire Sprint itself and thwart a rival offer from Japanese carrier SoftBank. Dish Corporation's Charlie Ergen has consistently offered that Dish's offer is a better value, while also trying to stir up some xenophobia -- arguing that Dish is better suited because the company "speaks English."

In early 2011 MetroPCS joined Verizon in suing the FCC to overturn the agency's already fairly-flimsy network neutrality rules. With MetroPCS and T-Mobile now merged, T-Mobile announced late last week that it would be withdrawing the lawsuit against the FCC they acquired as part of the deal.

• Confronting The Reality Of US Broadband Performance [techcrunch.com]
• Dish Network to launch satellite Internet service aimed at rural areas [nbcnews.com]
• Looming Health Crisis: Wireless Technology and the Toxification of America [rinf.com]
• Leaked Memo Shows Barnes & Noble Bringing Web Browser And Email To Simple Touch eReaders In June [techcrunch.com]
• Microsoft's New Xbox Girds for a Smartphone Battle [wsj.com]
• Yahoo board has approved a massive $1.1 billion all-cash deal to buy Tumblr [allthingsd.com]
• Want To Destroy Any Hope Of Serious Cybersecurity? Give The DOJ Its Desired Backdoor Wiretaps On All Communications [techdirt.com]
• Samsung: We'll hit 10M Galaxy S4 sales in less than a month [fiercewireless.com]
• 44% of operators will offer home automation through gateways by 2014 [fiercecable.com]
• The "PayPal 14": What happens to the hackers after the government cracks down? [huffingtonpost.com]

• Verizon, Sprint report best customer service results in industry [kansascity.com]
• Think your Skype messages get end-to-end encryption? Think again [arstechnica.com]
• Wireless Home Phones: A Plan Strikes a Chord [nytimes.com]
• Why broadband is less popular in apartments [zdnet.com]
• The man who 'nearly broke the internet' [guardian.co.uk]
• You are your data: The scary future of the quantified self movement [pandodaily.com]
• Is 'No Fap' Movement Start of Tech Backlash? [huffingtonpost.com]
• The Spy and the Mobile Phone [huffingtonpost.com]
• SKAA: Displacing Apple AirPlay As The New Premium Wireless Music Standard? [forbes.com]
• Smart TV failing the connectivity test [broadbandtvnews.com]

• Americans hate their internet service providers like they hate airlines [examiner.com]
• US Still Suffers Broadband Divide [lightreading.com]
• Ericsson Integrates Wi-Fi With Cellular [lightreading.com]
• Wireless Charging Takes a Big Step Forward [pcworld.com]
• AT&T to roll out wireless home security in Kansas City [kansascity.com]
• Microsoft unveils its next game console, the Xbox One [engadget.com]
• Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cablevision capitalize on the broadband-only opportunity [fiercecable.com]
• FairPoint to build next-gen 911 system for state of Maine [fiercetelecom.com]
• Study: Wi-Fi more cost-effective than small cells [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• Carriers respond to service disruptions in wake of Oklahoma tornado [fiercewireless.com]
• Boost Mobile Wallet app and prepaid Visa service launches in LA, San Diego, parts of New Jersey today with rollout to all markets expected by end of year [engadget.com]
• Brow.si Aims to Fix the Broken Mobile Web and Might Very Well Succeed [huffingtonpost.com]
• Microsoft announces live action 'Halo' TV series on Xbox Live with Steven Spielberg as executive producer [theverge.com]