Verizon

Cox Cable, DirecTV and Dish Network are still trying to reach agreements to carry Time Warner Cable's new sports channel SportsNet in time for the outlet's first Lakers telecast Wednesday night. Time Warner Cable's SportsNet, which launched Oct. 1, is the new home for the Lakers and will be the only place for fans to see 57 of the team's 82 regular-season games. Other games will be available on national outlets, including Tuesday night's Lakers season opener against Dallas, which was on TNT. Last week, Time Warner Cable struck distribution deals for SportsNet and the Spanish-language service Deportes with Charter Communications, AT&T U-Verse and Verizon Fios.

As many as 60 million Americans could be directly affected by Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. Frankenstorm, according to a report on CNN. If someone you love is caught in the storm, the major cellphone providers are hoping you'll resist the urge to place a checking-in phone call and send a quick text instead.  PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy approaches Sending a text, as opposed to placing a phone call, will help the recipient of your good...

Dwight Howard and Steve Nash are not the only additions to the Lakers this season. The storied franchise also has a new television partner: Time Warner Cable. And just as new players sometimes have trouble fitting in with the established stars, Time Warner Cable is learning that launching a sports channel is not as easy as an uncontested layup. Time Warner Cable struck deals with Charter Communications and Verizon Fios on Friday, and on Saturday added AT&T U-Verse and its 450,000 subscribers.

Verizon has begun taking preorders for the Samsung Galaxy Note II, joining three other major U.S. networks now selling the 5.5-inch phone/tablet hybrid device. The Galaxy Note II is Samsung's largest phone -- bigger than the 4.8-inch Galaxy S III -- and the follow-up to the widely successful Galaxy Note, which made its world debut last year. The phone/tablet hybrid runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, uses a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor and has an 8-megapixel rear camera. It also comes with Samsung's S Pen stylus.

Sprint Nextel Corp., left behind in the latest wireless consolidation, is in talks with one of Japan's largest cellphone service providers for a possible takeover that could help turn around the No. 3 U.S. carrier. Sprint said Thursday that Softbank Corp. is considering a "substantial investment" in the company. The deal would give Sprint much-needed financial support to build out its high-speed LTE network and better compete in a market dominated by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. With more than 56 million customers, Sprint was expected to make a move after last week's announcement that Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and MetroPCS had agreed to merge.

Verizon will offer the Samsung Galaxy S III in four different colors as the carrier looks for ways to give consumers another reason to keep buying the smartphone.  The New Jersey carrier this week announced on its website that it will begin selling sapphire black and amber brown versions of the Galaxy S III. It did not specify when they would be available. The carrier currently sells the phone in marble white and pebble blue. The Galaxy S III was the highest selling phone in the U.S. in August, outselling the iPhone 4S, but the recently released iPhone 5 could retake that title from Samsung.

Consumers would normally shake their heads in dismay at news of yet another market-shrinking telecom merger. But T-Mobile USA gobbling up rival MetroPCS is one of those rare examples of a corporate roll in the hay actually being in consumers' best interest - at least for a while. Short term, a revitalized T-Mobile helps prevent the near-duopoly of Verizon and AT&T from owning the entire wireless market. "Given the power of AT&T and Verizon, it's understandable that T-Mobile has to get creative to compete," said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney for the advocacy group Public Knowledge.

A merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS would create a beefed-up, low-cost carrier that could give consumers another viable choice in a market dominated by Verizon and AT&T. If approved by federal regulators, the deal, announced Wednesday, would bring together two weaker players under the T-Mobile name. T-Mobile USA Inc. is the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier with 33.2 million mobile customers, while MetroPCS Communications Inc., with 9.3 million subscribers, is the fifth-largest.

MUSIC Country stars Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan head up the Go Fest from Go Country 105. Aldean is riding high on his mega-single "Dirt Road Anthem," which brought some interestingly rap-like cadences to a song about rural troublemaking. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. 4 p.m. Sat. $40-$80. ticketmaster.com.

Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to pay more than $260 million to a California company to end a patent-infringement lawsuit that targeted its video-on-demand feature for FiOS TV. Verizon and ActiveVideo Networks Inc. also agreed to a patent cross-license, ActiveVideo said in a statement. ActiveVideo didn't say how much Verizon is paying in total, except that it involves an unspecified sum in addition to $260 million earlier ordered by a federal court. The agreement was struck after a U.S. appeals court in August upheld a jury verdict that New York-based Verizon lost and an order that Verizon pay ActiveVideo $2.74 per month for each FiOS-TV subscriber.