• Rep. Lamar Smith: Enemy of the Internet? [techdirt.com]
• The Perpetual War: Pirates and Creators [nytimes.com]
• Dish: This year's Lightsquared? [lightreading.com]
• Apple Might Lose A $1.6 Billion Lawsuit For Using The Word 'iPad' [businessinsider.com]
• Lightsquared opens another front on GPS debate [kansascity.com]
• Ohio governor announces &10 million, 10-fold boost to state's broadband network [physorg.com]
• Elevate aims high, agrees to become Sprint's newest MVNO [engadget.com]
• U.S. online spending hit $50 billion last quarter [cnet.com]
• Study credits 'app economy' with 500,000 U.S. jobs [cnet.com]
• Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux computer on track to launch later this month [arstechnica.com]
• Judge denies EMI's bid to halt resale of digital music [cnet.com]
• Apple in early discussions to open stores inside of Sam’s Club locations [9to5mac.com]
• Apple eyes ISPs to sell 'iTV' [reghardware.com]
• Fewer Wireless Companies Could Mean Lower Prices - Wait, What? [multichannel.com]
• Super Bowl XLVI Drove Internet Traffic Down As Much As 20% [multichannel.com]

The latest numbers from Instat suggest that just 7% of potential customers use in-flight Wi-Fi. Though that number is still up from 4% in 2010, usage is still low enough that making the services profitable continues to be an ongoing problem. Customers have grown increasingly used to getting free Wi-Fi from coffee shops, their ISPs, and even in airports courtesy of Google -- and most seem to feel that the price for in-flight service remains in the luxury range. Instat notes availability remains limited with just 16% of the North American commercial fleet being wired for Wi-Fi service in 2010. Airlines collected $155 million in charges for onboard Internet service in 2011, and are expected to collect $225 million in 2012.

When Sprint first announced they'd be spending between four and five billion dollars to retrofit all of their antenna base stations (and upgrading to LTE), the company noted that plan involved the slow phasing out of the formerly-Nextel iDen network, with that effort starting in 2013 and the network being shuttered completely by 2017. The company this week launched a new website that gives more detail on the company's base station consolidation and iDen network shutdown on a region-by-region basis. As iDen gets shut down, Sprint plans to use that 800 MHz spectrum to help supplement capacity for their new LTE network. According to Sprint, their new "next-generation" Push-to-talk coverage footprint will increase to nearly 2.7 million square miles and is expected to cover a population of 309 million, up from the iDen network's the iDEN network’s 908,370 square miles covering a population of 278 million.

Yesterday Verizon announced that they'd be partnering with RedBox on a new streaming video service. Verizon had been considering such a project for some time, at one point even considering some kind of over-the-top live subscription TV play to be offered to customers outside of their traditional FiOS footprint. Eric Bruno, Verizon’s SVP of consumer product management, tells Multichannel News that it's "to be determined" whether they'll offer Live TV. "From a FiOS perspective, we participate in about 30% of the marketplace," Bruno said. "We want to compete in 100% of it… From a Verizon perspective, this lets us compete on a national basis." Given Verizon's cozy new relationship with the cable industry, and their walled-garden approach on the 360, expecting anything too disruptive to traditional TV would be a tall order.

It's fairly amazing to realize that this year was the first time the Superbowl was streamed online, despite the significant spread of faster broadband (DOCSIS 3.0, FTTH). However, the reviews of NBC's effort weren't particularly good, with users complaining of very poor stream quality, lag, and limited viewing options in the age of interactive Internet video.

According to a report in the Globe and Mail, Canadian providers Rogers and BCE will be among the first ISPs to partner with Apple on their upcoming television sets. Apple's new televisions have been rumored for some time, and are expected to integrated the Siri voice command functionality found in the iPhone 4S. Like Microsoft's XBox Live video offerings, it sounds like Apple is signing on numerous partners for content. However as we've noted a lot lately, Apple doesn't have a magical formula to bypass the entertainment industry's restrictive licensing, which has been responsible for keeping numerous companies (Google, Apple, Microsoft) from truly revolutionizing Internet video.

In the latest version of "The Mother of All Network Benchmark Tests," Signals Research finds that AT&T's LTE network performs "markedly better" that Verizon's LTE network in early tests in several markets, while noting that LTE performance overall lags somewhat due to an immature ecosystem and lower-quality early LTE devices. "Once normalized for channel bandwidth and MIMO, not to mention taking into consideration network loading, the performance differences across all technologies were relatively modest in the downlink," notes the report. "In a few cases, DC-HSDPA outperformed LTE, even without making these adjustments and EV-DO Rev A outperformed HSPA+." The firm noted that LTE upstream speeds are where the technology tends to notably outperform predecessors.

Back in 2010 we noted that Cablevision was tinkering with some kind of mobile phone service that relied on Wi-Fi, which would obviously be partnered with the company's significant investment in offering Wi-Fi to its subscribers along metro NYC commuter lines. "We are trialing phones that switch from Wi-Fi to cellular and back as you move in and out of Wi-Fi and cellular zones," then Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge said in a 2010 earnings call. Fierce Cable has since spotted some additional information in some patent filings, which note the cable company is working on a service called "Optimum Mobile" but has yet to iron out kinks such as getting suitable roaming partners in place for when users are outside of the range of Wi-Fi.

Last November Verizon Wireless launched a new promotion offering new LTE users double their usual data allotment for wireless data plans, something Verizon admitted was both to push users toward new LTE phones -- and away from their EVDO network in order to ease any possible iPhone congestion issues. The deal recently ceased, but was part of the reason AT&T raised their caps ever-so-slightly (unfortunately, their prices increased as well). Now, in addition to the launch of the Droid 4, Verizon plans to bring the deal back starting February 10. As of Friday, anybody that buys a new LTE smartphone can once again get double data for their selected plan, which for most of you means $30 for 4 GB of monthly usage.

• Cablevision develops technology for WiFi-based mobile phone service [fiercecable.com]
• Is the Open Web Doomed? Open Your Eyes and Relax [techpresident.com]
• MPAA Sues LimeWire Back From The Dead [torrentfreak.com]
• Since 2009, Mobile Internet Usage Has Doubled Every Year [readwriteweb.com]
• Cricket Wireless has the music industry feeling chirpy: MuveMusic helps labels tap vast underserved audience - people who can't afford computers [latimes.com]
• WiFi in flight has yet to soar [pcworld.com]
• Wireless Firms Live Or Die With Smartphone Strategies [investors.com]
• Simplexity MVNO Services will launch wireless service with Sprint [cnet.com]
• Motorola seeking 2.25% of Apple's mobile sales for 3G patent use [techspot.com]
• Antitrust hearing planned for Verizon-Time Warner deals [jsonline.com]
• Hackers wanted $50,000 to keep Symantec source code private [cnet.com]
• Woman fights copyright suit by claiming porn can't be copyrighted [torrentfreak.com]
• Verizon's double data promotion reappears Friday [cnet.com]
• HUD Google Glasses are real and they are coming soon [9to5google.com]
• EU takes its data privacy seriously; why won't the U.S.? [fiercetelecom.com]

• Copyright lawsuit targets owners of non-secure wireless networks; Failure to secure routers may let others download copyrighted content [computerworld.com]
• Global broadband snapshot: Hong Kong throttles the rest of the world [networkworld.com]
• Voice and Video Calls Via Wi-Fi From 30,000 Feet? [cio.com]
• Sprint details IDEN's death [lightreading.com]
• Powerline Carrier – Close,but Likely No Cigar [networkworld.com]
• Solving the Snowballing Wireless Data Problem [ecommercetimes.com]
• Android nabbing more than half of new smartphone buyers [cnet.com]
• CheapAir.com First to Tell Travelers Which Flights Have WiFi, TV and More [prnewswire.com]
• Prepaid iPhone Set to Disrupt Industry [wirelessweek.com]
• Portable gaming: Is mobile the future? [fiercewireless.com]
• Qualcomm is exploring the last 4G frontier: The sky [gigaom.com]
• Amazon in the Process of Launching a Retail Store [goodereader.com]
• SOPA/PIPA Opponents Tell Hill To Scrap Legislation, Period; All Efforts, including OPEN Act, Should be Deep-Sixed for a Do-Over [multichannel.com]
• CableLabs: VOD Advertising Technically Ready To Roll [multichannel.com]

Last summer major ISPs including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Cablevision signed off on a new plan by the RIAA and MPAA taking aim at copyright infringers on their networks. According to the plan, after four warnings ISPs are to begin taking "mitigation measures," which range from throttling a user connection to filtering access to websites until users acknowledge receipt of "educational material." The plan, as with most plans of this type, was hashed out privately with the government's help -- but with no consumer or independent expert insight.

Anonymous investors tell The New York Times that billionaire hedge fund manager and LightSquared backer Philip A. Falcone didn't have a very good 2011. Falcone's hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, lost 46.6 percent of its value last year as LightSquared ran face first into political headaches and GPS interference concerns. "The investors who remain in the fund are not happy with the results, but at least some who spoke on condition of anonymity saw it coming," says reporter Azam Ahmen. "One felt that the valuation was overly rosy for too long." LightSquared's fortunes don't look to be improving anytime soon, and Falcone continues to face several SEC investigations.

Earlier this month we noted that Google's effort to deploy 1 Gbps fiber in Kansas City had run face first into some pole attachment bureaucratic delays, Google apparently believing their brand name would be enough to help them float over and above the annoying red tape hurdles faced by all ISPs. This week Google suggests those problems have been resolved, a company blog post stating the company has started hanging fiber in Kansas City, Kansas. "We’ve measured utility poles; we’ve studied maps and surveyed neighborhoods; we’ve come up with a comprehensive set of detailed engineering plans; and we’ve eaten way too much barbecue," says Google's Kevin Lo. "Now, starting today, we’re ready to lay fiber." Initially Google says they'll focus on the backbone build, and is giving no hard date for when locals will get their 1 Gbps connections.

After eliminating their unlimited data option in 2010, AT&T grandfathered those users -- though most knew the fun wouldn't last. In 2011 AT&T announced they'd start throttling wireless data customers who consumed "more than their fair share" of network data.

Confirming rumors that popped up late last year, Verizon and Coinstar (operators of RedBox) today announced that they've formed a new joint venture that intends to take aim at Netflix's video streaming crown. Actual details in the announcement are very scarce, with the video service launching sometime during the second half of this year. The announcement says the service, which will likely retain the familiar RedBox brand, "will leverage Verizon's industry-wide relationships with entertainment content providers, its advanced cloud computing technologies and state-of-the-art IP network infrastructure to distribute video on-demand content to its customers."

Not only to Canadians lay claim to some of the most expensive broadband among all developed countries it's also among the lowest quality, with numerous ISPs heavily throttling data and imposing unreasonably low caps and high overages in the HD video age. What are you to do if you're an ISP like Rogers and the data repeatedly shows Canadian broadband is expensive and heavily capped due to weak competition? You fund your own study.

Last October Cox Communications scrapped their entire wireless ambitions. Those plans started with them planning a new LTE network, which ultimately de-volved into another Sprint MVNO before being discarded entirely. Like other cable operators Cox then recently offloaded their spectrum holdings to Verizon, and is poised to join Comcast in re-selling bundled Verizon LTE services. Not too surprisingly, Cox is now shedding a lot of the hires acquired during their brief wireless effort, laying off roughly 100 engineers, product development managers and infrastructure designers tied to the wireless unit. Cox, which has roughly 60,000 employees, did not sell their 700 MHz spectrum licenses to Verizon.

Recent rumors had suggested Surewest Communications was on the verge of being acquired by Google. As it turns out, that was only half right. Surewest Communications this morning announced that the company has been acquired -- by Consolidated Communications Holdings (see our user reviews) for $340 Million. SureWest currently serves 130,000 residential subscribers and 15,700 commercial businesses in the greater Kansas City and Sacramento regions, offering a combination of cable and limited fiber to the home services. "This transaction combines our cash flow-generating business with SureWest's growth-oriented strategy, resulting in a financially strong company with a robust balance sheet and attractive dividend payout ratio," Consolidated CEO Bob Currey said in a press statement.

• AT&T Starts Throttling Unlimited Data Users after 2GB of Monthly Usage [macrumors.com]
• CentMesh aims for first open-air Wi-Fi network [newsobserver.com]
• Are we in the post-PC era now? [cnet.com]
• Google abandons CDMA [techeye.net]
• Why the Internet should be considered a luxury, not a right [smartplanet.com]
• Unused Wi-Fi costs Minneapolis millions [startribune.com]
• Is getting throttled a bad thing? [coolsmartphone.com]
• Google may add WiFi, Bluetooth to Kansas City project [kansascity.com]
• Southwest Airlines to offer football & baseball games via WiFi [chicagotribune.com]
• WiFi and cellphone service finally coming to 30 NYC subway stations [thenextweb.com]
• In Russia, downloading 419GB of data over 3G in 1 week wins you a $5000 vacation [thenextweb.com]
• WalMart helping AT&T users figure out how to defect and avoid trouble [denverpost.com]
• Google testing mystery entertainment device [pocket-lint.com]
• BitTorrent Giant BTjunkie Shuts Down For Good [torrentfreak.com]